


Vicious

by FantasyDeath



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anti-Hero, Elf Culture & Customs, Elves, Fantasy, Gen, Goblins, Half-Elf, Half-Elves, Half-orc, High Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Orc Culture, Orcs, Quests, Slow Romance, Sorcerers, Spirits, Swords & Sorcery, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 17:10:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 52,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15711648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasyDeath/pseuds/FantasyDeath
Summary: Rys is a halfbreed. Half-elf and half-orc. Needless to say, it's a bad combination all around.With the slim build of the elves and the gray skin of the orcs, being welcomed would be a miracle. Elves live for thousands of years and because of it, they are not fond of change, much less a halfbreed of a race they perceive to be far beneath them.And then he gets cast out by the elves. It all gets worse after that.Because; Why not let the bad guys win for a change?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an original story. All rights belong to me. That said, if you want to write fan-fiction or something, feel free. Just let me know please, so I can feel proud and flattered.
> 
> You can also find this story on my wattpad account, under the same username. Do please tell me what you think of it?

****It started like this: For as long as Rys could remember, he had been an outsider looking in on a perfect family. That wasn't to say that his family didn't love him, but his mother sure as hell hadn't had him by choice. It was bad enough she had done it with an orc, even if it hadn't looked as hideous as its brethren, but to get pregnant from it? That was about as low as she could get. On the other hand, it wasn't as if she didn't love him when he was born, she just hadn't loved him while she was pregnant and was having nightmares about what he would look like.

But when he was nearing two thousand years of age, she loved him just as much as any mother loved their children.

So, it wasn't as if he resented the rest of his family, his stepfather or his two younger siblings, even if they were fair skinned like elves were supposed to be. No, he felt just as accepted as anyone else in his family.

Still, for as long as he remembered, he had been looking in on a perfect family from the outside and wondered what he was doing there.

By the time Rys was nearing two millennia of being alive, he was used to it enough that it didn't bother him when other elves turned away from him with disgust written plain on their faces to see or when he was forced to move from his seat in the library because someone of higher rank wanted to sit there. As a halfbreed, unless you were the child of a royal, you were automatically at the bottom of the ranks, no matter what rank the rest of your family had.

Rys' family were in the lower nobilities, not high enough for anyone to play nice with him unless on official business, and no-one was going to do official business with a half-orc. Perhaps if he had been half-human or even half-dwarf (as much as elves disliked dwarves and dwarves disliked elves in return) it wouldn't have been such a big deal. At the very least, eventually they would have gotten used to it. But orcs had been an enemy of the elves for as long as the elves had lived in Light Valley. For as long as they had lived on the continent.

So, long story short, they weren't going to get used to him.

But still, that didn't mean he was all alone. He had friends and people he spent time with. They just generally didn't spend time together in public where people could scorn them. He didn't want to cause them any more trouble than he was worth.

But yes, it began kind of like this: He was a halfbreed, half-elf and half-orc and it was a bad combination all around.

***

Rys half-heartily swatted away the annoying fly that was determined to bother him awake. With a groan, he forced his dark green eyes open and glared for all he was worth at the creature that surely had a death wish.

What he saw was the expanse of a giant forest all around him.

He sat up on the cold ground he had been laying on and rested his head in his hands as he remembered what had happened the day before.

He had been cast out by the elves for a stupid mistake.

He gave a loud groan as he peeked out through his hands and realized he had no idea where he was. He had never been very far away from Light Valley, as the elves had been too embarrassed about him to let other elves know he existed. And they didn't trust him enough to let him leave on his own.

He fell back on the cold hard ground and closed his eyes while wondering if he could make his way back to Light Valley from where he was. But no, it was unlikely he would find his way back as the only map he had ever seen had been of only Light Valley and not anything around it, and even if he did find his way back, he wouldn't be welcome. He knew well enough that even if he found his way to another elven civilization, he wouldn't be welcomed there either.

Rys wasn't useless, he knew how to hunt and survive on his own, it was mandatory training for all elves as other races had a tendency to try to kill them for all they were worth, and they were often scattered on long journeys by bandits and thieves. But he had never truly been alone before and he had the sinking suspicion that if an orc saw him, he would only get killed on sight. Orcs didn't like elves either after all, and his pointed ears and slender build more suited for speed and agility then the typical bulky build of the orcs would give away what the other part of him was on sight. With grey skin and vicious elongated canines, there was no way he was ever going to pass for one race or the other.

Not that he particularly wanted to pass as an orc, but the popular opinion was that orcs were stupid and better left alone to their own self-destructive tendencies and he had never found anything that contradicted it.

If he had been half-human, he would maybe have looked enough like a full elf that he could have been accepted and not thrown out because he made the mistake to forge a dagger imbedded with runes that would light up when in the presence of hostile intentions.

How was he to know that weapons with magical runes imbedded in them eventually developed a sort of semi-sentience when it wasn't written anywhere and no-one had told him. He was self-taught in the art of weapon smithing—as he needed some way to make money and no-one knew it was him as a friend sold it for him—and no-one had ever stopped him and explained why nobody made weapons with magical runes instead of just useless ones for decorative purpose.

So, he was cast out by the elves and had, in his rage, ran as far away as he could.

With a clear head not effected by the blinding rage that were something orcs had and what was usually what led to their ultimate defeat, he could clearly see that running away like that had been another mistake. At the very least, he hadn't killed anyone in his rage and so couldn't be charged with murder along with whatever charge he had already been slapped with. He'd stopped listening after they told him he was being banished and wouldn't be welcomed back unless he did something extraordinary for the elves, after which all he had been able to hear was the blood pounding in his ears and his vision had gone hazy and red. It had taken everything he had not to attack them blindly and get killed for it. It was the first time in centuries he had reached that level of rage and bloodlust, as he could usually control it fairly well.

The last time, he had been out on a hunt with his friends when they had been attacked by bandits and his best friend had gotten injured. He'd lost it and slaughtered every single one of them. It was only luck that he hadn't turned his rage on his friends. Regardless, after that he and his best friend had drifted apart and he hadn't spoken to him in over a century. They couldn't even be called friends anymore.

His head fell back on the hard ground and he stared up at the clear sky through the dense treetops and tried to imagine what his life would be like now. He couldn't come up with any answer.

Everything he knew about the world outside of Light Valley were vague and useless trivia.

Rys briefly closed his eyes with a sigh and regretfully climbed to his feet.

He swayed for a moment before he caught his balance and frowned when he couldn't see his backpack anywhere near him. He almost never went anywhere without it and although it was possible he had dropped it on his rage-filled run away from the only home he had ever known, he had a feeling that wasn't what had happened. When he said that the older elves had never liked him, he wasn't lying. More often than not, it seemed like they despised his very existence. Rys wasn't bothered by it as he almost never met them, he was far too unimportant to meet any high-ranking elves without having done anything wrong. He had never even seen the king.

But still, without his backpack, the only weapon he had was a dagger hanging on his belt.

It was the first dagger he had ever made, so it wasn't even particularly useful nor very pretty. It was uneven and although the edge was sharp, the balance was on the verge of being horrible.

In a situation like this, it wasn't exactly something he would have brought on his own. Unfortunately, the Royal Guard hadn't given him any time to get better things, he had gone from relaxing in the sunshine on a courtyard, to being dragged before the Captain of the Royal Guard to given the sentence of banishment. Honestly speaking, it wouldn't surprise him if they had moved so fast when he knew for a fact that usually the criminal spent at least a night in a cell while they decided what they were going to do with them because they wanted him to die. After all, he was a blight on the proud race that were elves.

He glanced around the clearing he had found himself in and decided after a couple of minutes of futilely trying to figure out which direction he had come from to just go in the direction that the sun set in.

Rys straightened up from where he had been slouching against a tree and started walking.

***

The thing about walking in a giant forest with treetops high and dense enough that it was hard to see the sun that you had never been in before was that it was remarkably easy to get lost. After walking for what Rys could only guess to be hours, he hadn't made any progress to get out of the forest nor had he found any evidence that he had passed this way before. If he was walking in a circle, it was a really big one. For a while he was tempted to just... _stop_. Rys was never one for long adventures, he had heard tales of course, but they always seemed exaggerated and almost silly. Maybe that had only served to alienate him as well.

But he also knew that it was night soon, and he had no idea what kind of predators lived in the forest. What would start hunting him when night fell.

And he had no desire to find out.

The forest got darker as the sun went lower and Rys couldn't shake the anxious feeling that he was being watched. That he was being _studied_. It was unsettling and as the forest seemed to get more and more eerie, Rys sped up more and more. If he couldn't get out of the forest than he damn well wasn't going to stick around out in the open. That would be the very height of stupidity.

And he had done enough stupid things in his life, thank you very much.

Rys shivered and had to stop himself from looking around to see if he could spot what it was that was observing him. He had been going uphill slowly for a while now and if he was lucky, there would be a cave somewhere close by where he could hide for the night and maybe get a couple hours of sleep in if he could get a fire going. It was getting colder as it was the start of autumn. Some leaves on the trees were already beginning to change colors.

He felt as the terrain changed from grass to rock and almost smiled in relief as he let his eyes glance over the forest in front of him. A cave _had_ to be close by.

After almost an hour more of searching, during which the sun went so low he couldn't see it anymore, Rys finally found the entrance to a cave big enough for him to crawl into and hidden enough for him to feel somewhat safe. It wasn't big enough for him to be able to safely get a fire started but he could bundle up the cloak he was wearing around himself and hope for the best. He pulled his leather boots off before he crawled in, careful not to left his bare feet touch the cold ground and crammed himself in as good as he could get. His hood became a make-shift pillow as he let his head rest on the rock ground and tried to ignore the smell of damp water and general unpleasant feel of it. Still it was better than being out in the open.

He curled together and with the feeling of hopelessness (because he had no idea where he was and the only home he had ever known had thrown him out) he fell into a fretful sleep.

He woke up with a curse already on his lips and a snarl ready to be unleashed. There was something curled together next to him, something soft enough that he knew it was an animal but hard enough that he knew it was deadly.

Rys didn't have a lot of good experiences with animals, he usually only met horses, but they didn't seem to like him at all and the few other animals he had met had either attacked him or ran away from him. He guessed it had to do with his orc blood as the other elves had an easy time with animals. Elves generally excluded that feeling of safety and protection that animals liked and even deadly predators could be tamed easily enough if you were an experienced elf. Unfortunately, that was never how it had been for Rys.

So why an animal, alive if he was guessing correctly considering it hadn't been there when he fell asleep, was curled up together with him was a mystery. He supposed it was possible he had intruded in its den, but he was pretty sure it would have killed him if that was the case. So why was he laying in a cave with a strange animal?

Alive nonetheless.

Rys gulped slightly as he slowly pried his eyes open. He was scared of what he was going to see but he couldn't _not_ look. If he was going to need to make a run for it, he needed to know before the animal woke up as he was pretty sure it was asleep. Hopefully.

There wasn't enough light in the cave for him to see what kind of animal he was trapped in a small space with, but he could see that it was big and had powerful muscles. It was really big. The small bit of fur he could see that wasn't enclosed in darkness was a dark grey and Rys almost scooted back when he noticed just how close to him the creature was. It had crawled in after him, because he didn't think it could stand straight in the small cave either, and had climbed as close to him as it could get.

He carefully pushed himself up on his knees as he slowly turned around. If he wanted to get out of the cave, he would need to climb over the unknown creature and hope he didn't wake it up. He gingerly untangled the dark cloak from his body and pushed himself up as far as he could. He was still doing some weird crawling thing on his hands and feet, but he couldn't climb on the creature, what if it woke up? What if he hurt it and it awoke and killed him?

He was not ready to die yet.

Rys nudged himself forwards, but he was close enough to the creature that it was touching him anyway. He carefully lifted a hand and slowly bent over the creature to put it down on the other side of it. He glanced behind him before he lifted his other hand and moved it over the creature as well. Once both his hands were on the ground just inside the low entrance to the cave, he scooted up a little more and slowly started to lift his left leg.

He grimaced as he misjudged and his foot touched the animal (was it normal for animals to be that big?) and breathed a sigh of relief when the creature didn't stir.

He continued with his other leg and once he was fully on the other side of the creature, he let a smile slide across his face before he frowned in thought and slowly and as stealthily as possible crawled forwards. He almost caused when his foot got caught on a rock and made a sound and started to crawl faster. Once he was entirely out of the cave he stood up and made his way to a nearby tree as quietly as he could where he dragged his boots on over his feet. There was enough light from the rising sun for him to half-see where he was going and he kept his eyes on the ground in order to not trip as he slowly made his way down the low mountain side.

Rys concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as he tried to walk as quietly as possible. He just hoped that whatever nocturnal animals lived in the forest had gone to sleep by now. He had no desire to go from one deadly creature to the next.

As he climbed down, the sun rose higher and the temperature with it. Rys almost sighed when the suns rays washed over him. Sleeping in a cold stone cave had perhaps not been one of his best decisions, but it had been the only option he could think of. As stated, Rys wasn't an adventure kind of person, he preferred to be lazy and take things as they come. The longest he had ever been away from Light Valley before was three weeks. And even then, it had been in the summer with half a dozen other elves.

Now he was alone with no-one to watch his back, even if they only did so because they had been ordered too.

He let a frown flash across his face before he turned his face blank and in the partly dark forest, his eyes were cold.

Rys finally sat down at the base of a large tree with big green leaves where only a few were starting to change colors and let his eyes drop. The ground was covered in dark moss with some grass here and there and roots stuck up everywhere. So far, he hadn't found a definite road, but had wandered aimlessly, trying to continue in the direction he went the day before.

But it had been hours now and he was hungry enough that he could no longer ignore it.

That was another thing that set him apart from ordinary elves, most of them never ate meat. And even when they did, it was only when they had to, like when they ran out of packed food on a journey. Rys on the other hand, had no problems with, in fact he liked it. If he had to, he could eat it raw. He didn't exactly like the flavor of blood but he could also ignore it and just eat. It helped that raw meat didn't make him sick. His parents had made him hide it, because that would be like shoving the fact that he was half-orc in the other elves' faces. It wouldn't do him any good.

He grabbed the crappy dagger from his belt and frowned at it. It was the only weapon he had and he _needed_ to eat. Hell he needed to drink, but he hadn't come across a single body of water in this damn forest and thanks to the Royal Guard he had nothing with him.

He pushed himself up from the ground and stared at it. There had to be some smaller animal he could hunt. If he couldn't get a fire starting he would just eat it raw, he was too hungry to be picky. After some time of searching, he found some tracks of a smaller animal. He would guess that it was a rabbit, but he hadn't hunted enough to be sure. He had always figured that he was never going to _really_ leave Light Valley and hadn't put as much effort as he could into learning to track. Thankfully, the tracks were obvious enough that he could follow them even with his limited knowledge.

He walked on the heels of his feet to be as quiet as he could as he followed the tracks.

For over an hour, he followed them until he found his way to a hole in the ground. He hid behind a tree as he figured whatever animal was there would need to come out eventually. The wind would keep his scent away from the den and then it was only a matter of waiting.

It took minutes for him to start hearing the sound of thumping as the animal living in the hole made its way out. He breathed out in relief when he saw that it really was a rabbit and not something else, something dangerous, that he had been hunting. A while back, the feeling of being watched had resurfaced, but he was too concentrated to bother with the feeling. He needed food before he collapsed of hunger. It was getting to the point where his stomach was starting to hurt and he didn't know if he was strong enough to find food while so hungry.

Rys was aware that he seemed pathetic, he wasn't much of an elf much less an orc, but he had never been in a situation resembling this before. His parents may have been wary of him and the man he called father sometimes couldn't look at him, but they had always made sure he was well fed. Even if it was only in pity.

Once the rabbit was far enough away from the hole that he thought he could catch it before it burrowed its way back in he made quick work of crossing the small distance and breaking the rabbits neck. He cringed slightly from the sound but shook of his unease, as he normally didn't kill the animals he ate, and made his way backwards for a while. It would be disrespectful to eat the animal so near its home.

Once he was a decent distance away he worked quietly for a few minutes until he got a fire going and smiled in relief. He prepared the rabbit as best as he could and after it had been cooked enough he started eating it. It was slightly dry at the start but he could taste blood and had apparently not cooked it long enough for as he got closer to the middle, the taste was stronger.

Not that it mattered to him.

Rys ate and then spread out his cloak on the forest floor as he laid down on his back. He had spent the entire day running around the forest and although the rabbit had eased his hunger, he still hadn't drunk any water in almost two days. The problem was that even with his good hearing, he couldn't hear any trickling of water anywhere near him.

He closed his eyes as he tried to figure out what to do. If he didn't find something to drink soon he was going to die of dehydration.

It was as he laid on the ground and tried to dream himself away that he heard it. The snapping of a branch just a few meters away from him. For a moment, he thought it was elves, that they had followed him to kill him away from the Royal Guards eyes, or that they were the Royal Guard, but then he realized that he would have heard them a lot sooner, not to mention that the forest had a scary atmosphere sometimes and he couldn't see an elf willingly entering it.

He opened his eyes and turned his head to see what had done it, still laying on the ground. For a moment, he wanted to laugh.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to get it away from it, it had probably lived its entire life in this forest!

He wondered why he ever thought he could, as he preferred working on his weapons and reading to spending time in the woods that surrounded Light Valley.

Obviously, a beast such as this would find him again.

The creature was big, bigger then he had thought now that it was standing. It looked like a wolf, though the canines were bigger, its eyes were a fiery red and it was big enough for its head to reach his shoulders. Its fur was a dark grey with patches of lighter grey here and there.

It looked terrifying.

The beast prowled towards him and Rys sat up only to freeze in fear when the giant creature took a giant leap towards him. He held his breath as the creature's face was suddenly only centimeters away from his own, close enough that he could see that the red eyes had some gold streaks in them.

He drew in a breath when he felt his lungs start to hurt and watched as the creature's eyes seemed to follow the action.

Just as he thought the creature was going to kill him, it sat down on its hunches and its eyes lost that vicious edge they had had and looked softer. Rys watched, stunned, as it laid down next to him and put its head on his lap, snorting slightly as if laughing at him at the same time. He watched as the eyes slipped closed and noted, still frozen in fear that he was going to get eaten, that the animal seemed to have _fallen asleep on him_.

He couldn't resist commenting, "Well, aren't you... terrifying."

The red eyes opened slightly in response but closed again soon after. So, it wasn't asleep? It was just... laying on him?

This was getting more terrifying by the minute.

Rys didn't think his heart had ever beat so fast before. He let out a breath when the creature didn't make any move to attack him and Rys leaned back on his hands. This was the craziest days of his life. First, he gets cast out by the elves (for a stupid mistake), then he gets lost in a giant forest without any supplies that he still hadn't found a way out of and a giant wolf-like creature apparently considered him its pillow. It was enough to make his head spin. If this was what people normally experienced on adventures of exile and banishment, he didn't think his heart could take it much longer.

He liked books much better than the real deal, thank you very much.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Terrifying monster-like giant creatures and strange forests aside, being exiled was kind of like a vacation.

In that "Help me there's a giant creature sniffing me!" kind of way.

It was still the most relaxing he had been in months. In Light Valley, although people didn't outright ostracize him, that didn't mean they didn't have ways of making his life more difficult. He often got charged with loaning books from the library longer than what was allowed, or was allowed to attend archery training because he had been caught misbehaving somehow or other and so on. Rys liked Light Valley and the life he had lived there (it wasn't like he was a people-person, he _liked_ being alone), but sometimes the people were annoying.

Elves lived for thousands of years, during with they collected priceless knowledge and artifacts, fought in countless wars and learned magic beyond the other races imagination. Rys would be the first one to admit that elves were incredible beings, but it also made them lazy, condescending and arrogant.

That wasn't to say that they were all like that.

Light Valley was one of three elven civilizations on the Meira continent, ruled by King Ragnar. It was located in the country of Loria, below the Kai Mountains in the south that separated Loria and Sikera. The second was on the island Pandora in the Pomona Ocean that was said to be able to move, ruled by Queen Amaryllis. The third was located somewhere between the border of Hoven and Lamira, ruled by the King and Queen, though Rys didn't know their names as it had been centuries since Light Valley had last heard from Dane.

Rys had friends that when they talked, didn't make him want to hit them. For example, his best friend, though they didn't speak anymore, loved learning about other cultures and their beliefs. It was just hat as most elves got older and saw and experienced more things, learned that history was always doomed to repeat, and became convinced that they were always right and that they were the smartest. They looked down on other races, especially the ones with much shorter life-expectancy, because they saw them as young children that didn't understand the world around them. Their attitude hadn't exactly endeared them to the other races, particularly humans with their life being generally shorter than eighty years.

That didn't change the fact that the other races respected them, you would be a fool if you couldn't see the power the elves held, it just meant that they didn't really like them. Regardless, elves had a tendency to fight for the Good side in wars against things like tyranny and monsters and the like, which ensured that most people at least saw them as allies.

Unless you were orcs of course, but orcs fought against everybody.

Rys looked down at the wolf when he felt it nudge him with its snout, still terrified that it was just playing with him and was going to eat him and raised a single pale eyebrow at it. The creature nudged him again, this time hard enough to almost push him onto his back and stood up from where it had spent the last hour or so sleeping on his lap. It turned and started walking away. After a few steps, apparently having realized that he hadn't followed it, it turned back towards him again and Rys shivered when the eyes, once again cold, stared at him. He pushed himself onto his feet and stood up, his dark cloak swishing around him as he did so. The hood wasn't up so his pale hair tied into a knot-like thing at the base of his neck was fully visible in the afternoon light.

His dark green eyes glanced around the clearing he had eaten in and after not finding any friends of the creature it could be leading him to be eaten by, he followed after the wolf. Once if saw that he was going towards it, it started walking off into the forest again. Rys continued to follow, even as scared as he was he really had nothing better to do.

By the time he figured out where they were going, it had started getting darker again in preparation for another night. It wasn't until he heard the faint sound of trickling water that he figured it out but when he did, he sped up and watched as the wolf seemed to perk up to attention as well. He wasn't sure if it was really leading him to a water source, but at that point he didn't care, he was thirsty enough that he would have gladly walked into an ambush if he had been told there was water on the other side.

In Light Valley, water was never an issue. Now he was lost in a forest seemingly without an end.

The sound of water got clearer as they got closer and when he could finally see it, he started running towards it, ignoring the fear that he still had that this was a trap set up by a very frightening intelligent wolf creature in order to finally get something to drink. He slid to his knees by the spring and submerged his hands into the clear blue water. He cupped them and brought them to his mouth ad with a slight grin, began to drink.

It was heaven.

After drinking his fill, he sat back and looked up at the wolf that stood next to him. It had stopped drinking a while ago and had only stared at him while he drank.

"Hmm... I suppose I should thank you for showing me the way here." He mused out loud.

The wolf perked up ad turned its eyes from his hands to his face and Rys was slightly unnerved by the intelligence that he could see in the wolfs red eyes. It wasn't normal for wolfs to be that smart, was it?

"Well, thank you I guess." Rys said.

The wolf walked closer to him and laid down next to him again, once more demandingly putting its head on Rys' lap. He hesitantly raised his hand from where it had rested on the ground and brought it closer and closer to the wolfs head. He stopped for a moment when he noticed that the wolf wasn't asleep like he thought, in fact its eyes were wide open, but continued with the motion. He laid his hand on the giant beast's head and with elation cursing through his veins, started to slowly pet it.

His heart beat fast in a mixture of fear and happiness, as it was the first time an animal of any kind had ever let him pet it. Not even his horse had let him get close to it unless magic was used to calm it down first.

Suddenly, the wolf stood up from where it had laid and startled Rys so badly that he almost fell over. The wolf growled in the direction of the trees behind him and Rys was almost too afraid to look behind him. He wondered if there were more of the big creatures around and if they were going to eat him now. If the wolf had only led him led him into a trap after all.

He turned around prepared to see his death staring him in the face. Instead, he saw a small half-dead looking creature. Its grey skin was much darker than Rys' and it only looked tall enough to reach his knees, with strange pointed horns sticking up from the sides of its head. Its arms were long and spindly, with a hairless head and several wounds present all over its body, some of them still bleeding. In its left hand was a small silver knife, of much better quality than his own dagger.

Rys blinked and climbed to his feet as he started to approach the panicked looking creature. It stared up at him with large scared looking eyes and he saw a nasty scar on the left side of its face, disfiguring it. Once he was in front of it, he bent his knees until he was at about the same height of the with the being. In the background, he ignored he sound of the wolf's increased growling as he concentrated on the being that head slowly started to back away from him.

He smiled. "Hello. My name is Rys, can you tell me yours?"

The being just looked up at him with tears starting to form in its big dark eyes and made no indication that it had understood him. He frowned. "Well, I suppose that if you don't want to tell me, I shouldn't push it. You wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?" he asked.

The tiny thing gave a hesitant nod in response. He smiled back in relief.

"That's great! See, I'm lost, and I haven't been able to find a way out of the forest and I didn't have time to pack anything before I came here. If you could point me in the way out that would be great!" he added.

The being just shook its head sideways, causing it sway slightly.

Rys furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at it in thought. "Why not?"

The being shook its head again. "If you haven't been able to leave, it's because the Forest doesn't _want_ you too." The beings voice was low and gravely, getting progressively lower and lower as it spoke. It sounded hard like the ground and caught slightly on different sounds, with an accent he couldn't place.

Its voice was as foreign as its looks.

It was also clearly crazy. The thought of the forest not wanting him to leave was insane. Magic could do a lot of things, but a sentient forest was an entirely different thing.

He gave a shaky smile to the being and asked, "What makes you think the forest doesn't want me to leave?"

Thankfully, the being didn't cry but instead gave him a dry look as if it thought it was obvious. "Everyone knows the Forest of Dorlan is haunted by the spirits of the dead. The only way to gain safe passage is if the Forest itself protects you from the gaze of those long since passed. If the Forest didn't want you here, you'd be dead." It stated in a knowing tone as if it was common knowledge.

His stunned silence was the only answer.

"Further the more," it continued, "you're being protected by one of the Great Wolfs."

***

Sometime later, Rys felt like his head was about to explode. Apparently, there were spirits of the dead haunting the forest, killing anyone they came upon who weren't under "the protection of the Forest" called draugr. The tiny beings name was Tif and it was a female goblin. She was also apparently still in her teens at the age of twenty-seven and thought him to be incredibly rude to point out that she had horns, something which goblins normally didn't have. She then stressed the fact that she was a _female goblin so of course she had horns and how stupid was he?!_

It appeared she had completely forgotten her fear of him.

They were sitting around a campfire that Tif had helpfully gathered firewood for. She then proceeded to criticize his skills at setting fires and took over control of it as well. He was then delegated to hunting for something to eat again while she gathered more water. She seemed to have come to the conclusion that he was pathetic and needed her help. Granted, he really _did_ need it, but he didn't think he was that useless. Still, her help was appreciated and although he still didn't believe her about the forest wanting him here, he believed in his own ability to get hopelessly lost and so required her assistance to get out of the forest. Therefore, he was dragging a couple of rabbits that he'd managed to kill back to the camp.

Hopefully goblins ate rabbits, because they were the only animals that he'd seen in this forest other than the wolf.

When he entered the hidden clearing where Tif was waiting, he absentmindedly noted the absence of the wolf, but thought nothing of it as he carried the dead rabbits over to the grumbling goblin.

"Did the wolf try to eat you or something?" he asked the angry looking female goblin, perplexed about her change in mood. She'd seemed happy enough when he left to hunt for the rabbits.

She glared at him. "No. I just remembered what I'm going here, that's all."

"Oh," he raised a pale ash-colored eyebrow. "and what's that?"

She gave him a suspicious glance but answered anyway. "Lately the Elders have been sensing an evil presence within the Forest and they sent me to check it out. At first, I thought it was you, but now I know it's something else. If I leave the Forest without knowing what's causing the evil presence I'll be killed when I get back."

"Oh," Rys said in lack of anything else and continued with, "well if you show me the way out when you leave, I suppose I can accompany you to find out what's causing it."

"Really?" she gave him a hopeful look.

"Yes, it's not like I have anything better to do." He answered.

She beamed at him and went back to tending to the fire as he prepared the rabbits for cooking. Now that he wasn't so hungry though, he wondered if they would taste bland without any spices. He hadn't noticed anything while he ate before, he'd been too hungry to.

They had just finished cooking the rabbits when the snapping of twigs announced the reemergence of the wolf. Rys looked up from where he had been sitting on his cloak on the ground. He had taken it off in order to sit more comfortably on it. With the hood off his long-pointed ears were perfectly visible and although Tif had given him an odd look, she hadn't pressed the issue. To be honest, he had no idea what she thought he was.

The wolf continued into the clearing, growling slightly when it got caught by the branches due to its big size. Rys cast a quick glance in the wolfs direction and seeing that it seemed fine, continued eating. Once finished, he turned towards the wolf that had sat itself down next to him some minutes ago. He wondered what the wolf was thinking about when it looked at him like that. He wondered _why_ it looked at him like that. He'd given up the thought that it was luring him into a trap in order to kill and eat him, but he couldn't think of any other reason a creature such as this would be following him around.

He laid down on the cloak and was hardly surprised anymore when the wolf immediately laid down next to him, its head almost at level with his own. He moved his arm so he could pet it lightly down its back and nearly flinched back slightly when the wolf pressed itself closer to him. He let his mind wander as he thought of the past few days and how everything had changed.

Just a week ago he was in his smith, making weapons and jewelry to be sold in his friends shop so he could make a living and now he was in the middle of a forest that he had never heard of before, lost with only a small female goblin not even fully grown and a mysterious wolf that refused to leave him alone for company. The only weapon he had with him was an old crappy dagger, not even good enough for killing rabbits with. Not only had he lost the only home he had ever known, he had lost the only _people_ he had ever known.

Rys didn't know much about the world outside of the elves' territory, he didn't know what things were common knowledge or the dangers one would face or, for that matter, how to avoid being robbed for all he had. He had no idea how people would react when they saw hi, if they would try to kill him on the spot without hearing a word he had to say. He didn't know what people saw when they looked at him as that was the only thing his friends refused to talk with him about. It was a brand new strange world out there and that didn't even take into account how fast humans advanced and changed. How many wars they liked to start. What countries existed now, who were the kings and nobles that ruled them and how could he avoid them?

Rys had no intention of being killed just because he was a half-orc.

When darkness fell, Rys had already fallen asleep next to the warmth of the wolf by his side.

***

Morning came and with it, a happy goblin that woke up the other people in the camp with her frankly horrible singing.

It only took seconds for the giant wolf to get up and growl threateningly at the goblin with fire in its eyes. The tiny being fell back on the ground and stared up fearfully at the wolf that was stalking closer and closer to the female goblin in order to make sure that it could never again make that dreadful detestable sound.

Rys let out a groan as he sat up and stared with bleary eyes at the comical scene in front of him. If there wasn't a very real danger that Tif could be eaten, he would have laughed at the look on her face. Together with the fearsome horns and her scar, her facial expression made a hilarious contrast. He swayed slightly as he stood up and called out to the wolf, hoping that it would listen to him, despite knowing that it was a wild wolf that was more likely to kill him for interrupting it then listen to him.

He let out a sharp whistle and prayed that would be enough. Sadly, he didn't believe he was strong enough to fight and win against a creature of its stature, so if it came down to it, Tif would most likely die first. Unless the wolf killed him first for daring to interrupt its meal.

Thankfully, the wolf turned around to face him when it heard the whistle, though its eyes were still frightening in their intensity. Rys had to stop himself from taking a step back in fear, he knew enough about animals to know that it would be a sign that he was scared and make him appear like prey in the creature's eyes, something that would not be a good thing right now. The giant wolf with its blazing red eyes still looked angry though it had stopped advancing on Tif. He hoped that was a good sign.

After growling a few more times at Tif and Rys, the wolf sat down at Rys oddly got the sense that it was sulking from it. He wondered where he got that idea, as it still looked as terrifying as ever, but that was the impression he got from it. Well, it wasn't as if he was an expert in animal behavior, he had no idea what was considered normal for wolfs or not, even if it was abnormally big.

"I should give you a name, I suppose. It would be rude to continue to call you 'the wolf' even if only in my head." He told the wolf.

The red eyes turned to him, still looking a little fiery.

Rys tilted his head to the side as he thought, his hair almost coming undone form the knot it was in as he did so. "Hmm, so something to do with you..." he mused out loud as he wondered what to name it. Well, its eyes were awfully red and almost looked like fire sometimes. And he was a wolf, so something to do with that maybe?

Argh, he hated naming things, he had never been any good at it!

Sometimes he got told to name the weapons he made because that made them more valuable or exotic or something like that and it never ended well. His friends always looked at him oddly and gently, in even voices, told him that maybe he should leave the naming to them. He was fully aware that he was horrible when it came to naming things, it had been the reason he'd wanted to name his youngest sister Blue when she was born, because her eyes were so blue. It had been the first time he'd made his father laugh.

The point was that he couldn't name things for the life of him.

And he got the horrifying feeling that if the wolf didn't like the name, it would tear him apart.

Rys shivered at the path his thoughts had taken and tried to come up with a name that didn't sound too bad. Something that had to do with fire or wolfs. Maybe Varg? It was an old name that meant wolf, though Rys didn't know if people still used it. Would the wolf even like being called wolf in another language? He continued to let his mind wander as he tried to think of a name that wouldn't lead to his demise.

Hadyn meant something like fire, didn't it?

Well, it was the best he could think of and the wolf was starting to look as impatient as an animal could.

He would just have to hope for the best. "How about Hadyn? It's for your eyes, when you're angry they look like they're burning like fire."

The wolf's eyes turned contemplating, another sign to how abnormally smart for an animal it was. Or so he assumed anyway, since none of his friends had ever remarked on the intelligence of any animal they had ever met. In fact, they usually called them stupid. So Rys assumed the creature was smarter than a normal animal should be, but maybe that was just a consequence of being so big, perhaps its brain was bigger as a result as well. Regardless, it was a giant deadly wild creature that could easily rip him in two if it ever felt like it. If he was going to name the thing, it should at least be a name it approved of, even if it wasn't aware of what was happening.

He felt the tension grip him as he awaited the wolf's judgement, making him feel halfway between stupid and ridiculous. Before he'd been exiled, he'd never would have thought that he would ever meet a wolf that wouldn't leave him alone and liked sleeping on him for some strange inexplicable reason. For all he knew, that was the only reason that the wolf hadn't killed him already.

Rys watched as the wolf settled down and laid its body on the ground as if it couldn't be bothered by the world. He faintly felt the stirrings of panic before he ruthlessly squashed it down. Now was no time to be scared! His friends had always told him that animals could sense fear. Still, considering where he was and who he was with, he thought it was completely logical that he was halfway scared out of his mind.

After a moment of terrifying clarity during which he could swear he could hear whispers in the back of his mind, the wolf closed its eyes and seemingly went back to sleep. He let out a sigh of relief that he would not be eaten today before he fell back on the ground, wondering if his heart could take much more of this. It couldn't be good for him to be constantly scared of everything around him.

The newly named Hadyn snorted as if it read his thoughts before Rys closed his eyes in a vain attempt to shut the world and all its weirdness out.

It was enough to make a man lose it.

The voice of Tif broke through the stillness of the morning, seemingly recovered from being scared witless by Hadyn, and Rys begrudgingly stood up and left the wolf where it was sleeping to make his way to the campfire in the middle of the clearing. He smiled thankfully at the small goblin and ate the food she had prepared for breakfast and his stomach settled down as his hunger was sated and he briefly wondered if they should save some for Hadyn before he remembered that he had seemed fine not eating before and could hunt much better than Rys or Tif's traps could, having most likely lived in this forest his entire life.

Rys swallowed the last of it and gratefully stood from where he'd been sitting next to a happily smiling Tif radiating smugness and let out a whistle, hoping that Hadyn wouldn't maim him for waking the wolf up. The fear that he was going to be killed and eaten had yet to disappear and he didn't think that it ever would.

It was a freaking giant wolf for heaven's sake!

"So..." he said, looking down at Tif and continued, "let's go find this evil presence, shall we?"

She beamed up at him in response and nodded enthusiastically. "Ah, I'm so glad I don't have to go alone, I was afraid I was going to die!" she burst out. "But with a High Dark Being with me, I've got nothing to worry about! You could probably kill whatever it is in your sleep!"

Rys froze where he stood, and his loose hair swayed behind him where it had fallen out of its knot as he abruptly turned his head and stared down at her. Had she just said what he thought she said?

He cleared his throat and pushed the hair that tried to obscure his face back behind his ears and asked, "What do you mean by a High Dark Being, Tif? I've never heard of the term before."

She hopped slightly as she started walking, forcing him and Hadyn to follow behind her and he registered faintly that his fear of the wolf was gone in favor of figuring out what Tif had meant by that. To his knowledge, orcs were just orcs.

"Orcs are High Dark Beings, they're more powerful than for example goblins, we're Low Dark Beings. I thought everybody knew this. Then again, the Elders warmed be that things aren't what they used to be outside of our caves." she mused out loud.

She continued, "Once, before the elves came and led the humans here, orcs ruled the entire continent. They used to be highly respected for their power and cunning. Then the elves came and brought more enemies and started to beat down upon anyone they didn't approve of, like they had the right to. Of course, that was a long time ago, but some people can't forget it. The glory of the Rienn Empire is long since dead but the Elders just won't stop talking about it. Nobody outside of the goblin caves has even heard of it for over twenty thousand years." she rolled her big eyes at him.

His dark eyes were wide as he stared down at her in stunned silence, his mind having promptly shut down. He didn't take in anything of the world around him as he thought about what she'd said. The orcs were once the rulers of the continent?! That's ridiculous! Orcs were stupid creatures capable of little more than bludgeoning people. Sure, they had numbers and they were apparently a pain to fight as they weren't afraid to use underhanded tactics, but nothing he'd ever heard of them betrayed that they could have the intelligence necessary to rule a nation. And of course, he knew that this wasn't the elves homelands, they had lived for much longer in the lands they originally came from after all, but he'd never thought about what it meant for the beings that _did_ come from here. They didn't talk to him about it, he didn't think they talked about it at all, but it made him wonder who started this off-again on-again war with the orcs that seemed to regulate everything that happened on the continent.

"So," he cleared his throat and continued. "you consider me to be an orc."

She gave him a look as if to say he was being stupid again and frowned at him. "Of course, that's what you are."

"Ah, I didn't mean anything by it, I've just been living a very sheltered life. I'm not used to the outside world yet." He smiled at her and twisted his pale ash grey hair into a tail at the base of his neck, some shorter strands slipping free to frame his face. The cloak fluttered around his feet as they walked, the snapping of twigs signifying that Hadyn no longer felt the need to stalk him from the shadows, though what they meant for Rys he had yet to figure out.

Still, he thought that this was about the best thing that could have happened after being banished from his homelands. He had the feeling that if Hadyn hadn't started stalking him for some reason or other, he'd already be dead. Tif might think he was an orc, but he knew very well that he was sorely lacking in knowledge of what being an orc meant. He'd always felt that what he knew was enough as long as he could live a happy life, but Tif and Hadyn had proved otherwise and he was surprised to find that he was rather glad for it. He was glad for a lot of things actually, being scared witless aside. At the end of the day, it was almost like taking a vacation.

In that "Where the fuck am I?!" kind of way.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Some hours later, when the sun was high in the sky though hard to see through the large treetops, Rys was on the verge of regretting following Tif on her grand quest.

They had walked far enough that Rys had no idea where their camp had originally been though he could faintly hear the sound of water falling somewhere in the distance. Tif was still smiling at him every now and then, apparently pacified by his admitting of not knowing much about his heritage. She hadn't asked any uncomfortable questions as even his friends were wont to do and instead seemed to be thrilled with the fact that she could talk his ear off about everything involving dark beings and he would listen. Apparently where she came from, fellow goblins had started to tune her out a long time ago.

Eventually, they came upon an old sign, lopsided and the carvings worn enough that he had a hard time figuring out what it said. It was a piece of wood on a metal pole, both leaning towards left though he could see no path. Behind it was just more trees and more darkness.

Tif seemed to think differently as she grinned, looking quite creepy doing it, and continued on with renewed vigor.

He shared a look with Hadyn and followed after her as she veered off to the left following a nonexistent path in a creepy forest. What self-preservation instincts Rys possessed screamed at him that it was a bad idea, but he had promised her and he really had no idea where he was. The forest was huge and he couldn't recognize a thing, despite the fact that it pretty much looked the same everywhere. Big trees with high and dense treetops, making it hard for the sunlight to shine through the leaves and leaving a gloomy atmosphere on the ground. It was the very definition of a Dark Lords eerie home.

At times, Rys could see old swords and other weapons littering the ground as they passed, but most looked old enough that they wouldn't be of much use anymore. One metal shield had an old black symbol etched into it that resembled a dragon's head. It was easy to see why Tif thought you needed the protection of the forest in order to survive if the number of old weapons laying around meant something. Once they even passed a large tree with a diameter big enough that Rys wouldn't be able to hug it and touch the other side that had the Old Runes for 'Death Ahead' carved into it. It didn't exactly seem encouraging.

Rys shivered slightly as they passed a skull on a pike that looked old and disfigured enough that he almost couldn't stand to look at it. At his side, Hadyn nudged him a little when he started to slow down and he gave it a light pat on the back and started drifting towards the skull. As unsettling as it was to look at, he was pretty sure there were words carved into it.

As they had walked further and further into the forest, as he assumed that was what they were doing, the trees and weapons got older and older. The weapons looked ready to fall apart and many of them already had and the trees were bigger, while some looked decidedly dead.

The skull, looking half-crushed, sat on the pike and Rys had to bend down in order to get close enough to make out the Old Runes that were written on it. He tried to ignore the question of whether or not the person the skull belonged to had been alive when it had been etched in. It was scary enough already. After concentrating for a couple of minutes he could finally make out what it said, 'Traitor' written with runes that no-one used anymore.

He backed away to where Tif and Hadyn stood waiting for him, both somehow managing to express the same level of impatience, despite one being a wolf and the other a goblin.

"Hey, are you sure we're going the right way Tif?"

She glared up at him. "Of course I am! Our Elders were very specific that it came from the older part of the forest, close to the ruins of the Fortress of Morgan." she explained, sounding pissed that he doubted her.

He gave her a questioning glance, but didn't pursue the matter, sensing she was mad enough that he doubted both her elders and her that she wouldn't explain it to him. Still, he wondered in the back of his mind what the Fortress of Morgan was. It sounded important when she said it in her low voice as if she thought he should know what she was talking about. Maybe it was a goblin thing. She had told him that goblins were a species that held grudges and had a hard time to let go of the past. They tended to cling to things and information they valued, therefor being the only race that still taught about life before the elves came to Meira.

He nodded to himself and again followed after Tif when she gave a huff and started walking on the path only she could see again. Hadyn drifted further away from them but Rys figured the wolf would come and go as it liked anyway and didn't give it much thought. They made their way through the rough patches of grass intermixed with dead grass and roots big enough that they had to go around them. Tif never stopped walking, she seemed to be completely focused on finding this dark presence that she had been ordered to locate.

Rys' cloak brushed roots as he passed them but he didn't stop to examine the old things littering the ground anymore, he had a feeling it'd just make him feel more unsettled. Despite the creepy aura the forest seemed to radiate, it was calm and quiet. There was no sound of birds chirping or footsteps scurrying on the ground. The leaves bristled slightly in the wind, but even that only served to make the forest seem more eerie. As they traveled, more and more grass went from dark green, a color similar to his eyes, to a dead black and the leaves and trees followed. They were big yes, but they still gave the impression of death.

Even Tif seemed to be able to sense something was wrong as her large brown eyes narrowed and she started slowing down her pace.

"I think we're getting closer." she said to him quietly.

Rys nodded absentmindedly at her and looked around them when they stopped. Dead branches hang down from equally dead trees, the ground was covered by a thin layer of fog and the lack of sunlight made it hard to see far ahead. Evening were starting to fall and the sun was lower in the sky, low enough that barely any light made it as deep into the forest as they were. It gave the view of the forest a decidedly gloomy atmosphere.

He took a deep breath, tightened his hair tail at the base of his neck and flicked the few pale strands of hair hanging around his eyes out of his face. His eyes narrowed as he took a firm step forward and Rys looked down and gave Tif a gentle smile, his long canines only slightly visible.

"Well, come on, you want to get there before night falls, don't you?" he asked her.

She gave a rigid nod in response and walked forwards as well.

Rys shook his head as he resisted the urge to laugh. Despite Tif's decidedly weird looks, disfiguring facial scar and oddly proportioned small body, she still managed to look almost cute when she was serious. However, he had the feeling that if he laughed at her now, even if it wasn't meant in a bad way, she would leave him behind in the forest and continue on her own, leaving him to be forever lost and the elves who cast him out with a victory. Rys may not hate the elves for casting him out, but that didn't mean he wanted them to win. He was determined to show them that he could survive on his own, even if he had to walk through a positively dreary forest to do so with a wolf that still scared the soul out of him half the time and a strange goblin that insisted she was a proper warrior of the goblin race, even though she wasn't yet an adult.

The continued forwards slowly, careful to not get caught on the roots and rocks poking out of the mist covering the forest floor. Tif had to climb over the occasional roots that were to big for her to step over and that she couldn't crawl under. In spite of the fact that it was getting colder the closer to night time it came, she didn't seem to be affected by the weather. All she wore was a dirty cloth around her lower body and Rys still wasn't used to her utter lack of modesty. Regardless, it didn't seem to bother her at all.

In contrast, Rys had dragged his hood up to cover his head in order to keep his long pointy ears from getting cold. It was an uncomfortable feeling.

The closer in they got, the more the fog covered until it was all the way up to his knees, basically burying Tif in it. It was an odd sight to only be able to see the top of her head but she hadn't stopped walking and so he hadn't either.

"So..." Rys began, "do you need me to carry you?"

Tif stopped so suddenly she crashed into his legs when he didn't stop in time to avoid her. "Wha-what?! No! I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own!" she shouted in objection.

"Well I just thought that you'd have trouble seeing where you're going in this fog." he mused. "But if you don't want my help then that's fine."

Tif's body twitched and she let out a loud groan. "Fine." she muttered under her breath, so low he almost couldn't hear her.

She then proceeded to grab a hold of his cloak and clamber up to his shoulders, her feet pressing down on his hips. Rys almost fell over as he tried to balance with her hanging on to the back of his cloak, almost strangling him for a moment before she managed to get a good grip on him. "There," she sniffed. "now keep going straight forward."

Rys took a hesitant step forward, careful to make sure his feet didn't catch on anything and before he knew it, they were making decent headway into what had apparently been a path once upon a time. He walked slowly, trying not to move suddenly to keep Tif from falling off. Although it felt weird to have her clinging to his back, he figured she was probably starting to get affected by the dim atmosphere and was keeping such a tight grip on his cloak in order to get some comfort without seeming weak, so he didn't protest.

Their walking eventually led them to a large old black metal gate as the trees were getting farther and farther apart. Night was on the edge of falling when he pushed his way through the gate, grimacing when it made a horrible sound as he pulled it open with all of his strength.

He could practically taste the magic in the air. And he wasn't even a magician.

He felt Tif shiver against his back and hide her face in his shoulders. Rys cautiously stepped inside the gate, faintly registering the fact that the fog that had covered the ground for so long now was starting to recede. He slid the knife at his waist into his right hand and gripped it tightly, listening for any sign of a monster close by. A place this full of dark magic was a perfect place for mindless monsters to make home. The energy itself could probably keep them sustained enough that hunger wouldn't bother them when they couldn't eat. It was potent enough that it was all Rys could do not to turn tail and run.

It made the rest of the forest seem like a meadow of daisies.

Hesitant step after hesitant step brought him further into the grounds. The grass was just as dead inside the gate as it had been outside of it and Rys had to put effort into not trembling as he walked. The very air seemed to breathe raw dark magic.

The feeling it gave him was a mix between scared out of his mind and pure paranoia. He swore he could feel someone watching them!

He pulled his hood back down in order to see better and let his enhanced senses out. He stood still, Tif clinging to him with a death grip and flickered his eyes between the shadows that surrounded them, trying to catch a glimpse of what was observing them. He used his ears to listen for the slightest hint that something was coming for them and tried not to show his fear. He was really starting to miss Hadyn now.

And then the magic seemed to press down on them before retreating back, taking the darkness with it. Suddenly the shadows that had seemed so threatening were just that, shadows. And in the wake of the fog and darkness leaving, something else grew visible. Something magnificent.

And it was glorious.

In a terrifying way, of course. This was an old partly dead forest, after all.

The ruins of a fortress stood before him and Rys wondered how the hell he had missed it. It was huge and eye catching, made in black stone with parts entirely caved in and others almost completely intact, as if all you had to do was walk in and you would see a household still operating. Torn banners that were impossible to tell what they had once said hang from high towers, now on the edge of falling over. Pieces of the roof were missing and the double doors of what he assumed to be the main entrance were askew and barely holding on, the wood having long since rotted. The glass of the tall windows were cracked and some had completely fallen off, leaving the fortress with a somber air.

The cloud of magic that had covered them ever since they had entered what was apparently the front garden of the fortress left as quietly as it came and Rys felt Tif relax against him, her hands releasing the tight grip they had had since they had walked through the gate.

Rys felt her gently climbing down from where she had hanged onto to him but he couldn't take his eyes off from the sight in front of him. The hand holding the dagger went slack as he dropped it, not even paying attention to where it landed. It was a useless thing anyway, he was sure he could probably pick up any one of the old weapons in the forest and they would be more useful. He took a shaky step forward, not being able to tear his eyes away from the castle and the faint thought of _I wonder where the feeling of being watched went?_ entered his mind.

Rys didn't dwell on it as he and Tif took cautious steps closer to the large doors covering the entrance. They could probably climb in through the broken parts of it to get inside, but that felt disrespectful to what must have once been an amazing castle and the people that had lived there. Not to mention that what intuition he had was screaming at him that breaking in like that would be a horrible idea.

He got the feeling that the magic would come back and choke them to death if they did anything disrespectful to the fortress.

The forest just got more terrifying every second he spent in it.

After walking some fifty meters, they stopped in front of the doors. Rys carefully put his hands on them and, gripping the metal handles, he pushed as hard as he could. He saw Tif start to push as well out of the corner of his eye when nothing happened. With a grunt and a loud groan, the doors gave way and fell off from the hinges, falling down with a loud thud on the floor behind them.

Rys and Tif blinked simultaneously in shock at how easy they fell down. They had thought it would be much harder to push them open, but apparently even the hinges were in horrible shape after however many years it had been since someone had last been in this place. It was a shame, as the sight of it—even torn and broken as it was—was completely breathtaking.

They glanced at each other, saw that they were thinking the same thing, and went in. Rys stepped through first and it was like walking into another world. The atmosphere was completely different, the very air seemed to vibrate. The magic that swelled outside when they opened the door fell over them, feeling like a thick blanket in a mountain of snow. Rys' eyes were wide open, their dark color glittering as he looked at the massive room with a large staircase in the center of it. The coloring was just as dark and torn as the outside, yet it seemed warmer somehow. From the roof candles hang down, as if just waiting for someone to light them. There was no dust to be seen, as if it hadn't been abandoned at all.

He could hear Tif gasping in amazement beside him as she stepped inside as well and he had to agree with her. This sight was even more amazing then the waterfall in Light Valley that he could spend hours staring at. There was just something...magical about it.

Rys took another step forwards and slowly picked up speed as he walked on what had once been a carpet. In the middle of the room, he stopped and just stared. Along the sides were massive black pillars, supporting another floor, with characters etched into them. He pulled his cloak off and dropped it on the floor, trying to take in everything he was seeing. Even in Light Valley, he had never been in a place so filled with raw magic. The magic around them were undeniably dark and what most would classify as evil, but he couldn't sense any malice. For even a non-magician like himself to feel it it had to powerful and old.

The most powerful magic he had ever felt.

Even broken as the castle was, it was still a sight to behold.

Tif hurried over to him, huffing as she asked, "Is this where the dark presence is coming from?"

"Undoubtedly." he murmured in response, still turning around to see all of the room.

"So how do we exorcise it?" Tif asked.

"Wha-what?" he stuttered out in surprise. "I'm a blacksmith, I make weapons! What makes you think I would know how to exorcise something this powerful?!"

Tif only stared up at him with large unblinking eyes.

"I mean, this magic is powerful. I've never felt anything this potent! The only way to get rid of it would be for a magician to banish it. Even then, I doubt they would be able to get rid of everything. Some powerful people must have died here for it to still be hanging around and I don't think pissing it off by attempting to banish it would a good idea." he whispered to her, trying to keep his voice low. He had no idea if the magic could understand what he said, but he wasn't taking any chances.

Tif hummed. "I see." she continued, "Well, if you say so. I suppose I need to go report this to the Elders and see what they think about it anyway."

Rys let out a relieved breath when the magic around them, basically drenching them, didn't react to what they had said. He was tense enough as it was, he didn't need the added stress about wondering why magic this old was suddenly this active again. To still be this powerful, it can't have been active this entire time.

He may not be a magician, but he could still read books. One good thing being mostly ignored was good for was that no-one bothered to stop him from reading whatever he wanted, even if it wasn't technically something he should read as it had nothing to do with him and sometimes contained some dangerous knowledge. Elves tended to hoard things that way, even if the knowledge itself was dangerous and it would be better left forgotten, they just couldn't get rid of it, and it remained in their libraries and treasuries.

Free for someone to find and use. They were lucky Rys had no ambitions to be an Overlord, because he had read some horrible things.

"Well," he said. "why don't we spend the night here and continue on tomorrow? Do you think your Elders would like to meet me?"

Tif nodded and said. "Mhm, yes. They would love to meet you. Goblins usually doesn't get out much, I'm sure they would be delighted to meet a Higher Dark Being such as yourself."

***

Spending the night in an old castle still haunted by the magic of the dead, was in a single word; terrifying.

In the middle of the night, when they had already falling asleep, Hadyn returning woke Rys up and almost scared him to death. He was still on the edge in case the magic changed its mind and decided to suffocate them. So Hadyn sneaking in in the middle of the night – when it was too dark for him to see anything around him as the fire had already been put out – was enough to make him frightened like hell.

He just wasn't cut out for these kinds of things. Rys was a reader that made weapons for money and liked to be alone. He did not like to walk around in a supposedly sentient forest haunted by the dead to find old castles still filled with magic to the brink. These kinds of things were what heroes and adventurers did, not half-orcs. He had no desire to be a hero or whatever this was shaping up to be.

In the stories about ancient heroes and their good deeds, defeating the evil dragon, killing the bad trolls and winning the war with the orcs and so on, they always had a tragic backstory of loss and suffering, like it was some kind of cosmic joke. The ones that didn't have the textbook tragic past usually experienced tragic events and loses on the quest while attempting to win against the new Dark Lord or whatever. Rys had no desire to be one of those people, his past may not have been the happiest, but it sure as hell wasn't tragic either. The recent events in his life were enough to make him furious, but he had no plans to try to take revenge. His revenge would be to show them that he didn't need them and never had.

Elves were stubborn creatures, they wouldn't acknowledge their wrongs even if it was spelled out to them anyway.

He had no intention of going down that road.

Rys laid down on the cloak that had recently replaced his bed again when he finally determined that it was only Hadyn returning from where-ever he had been and tried to go back to sleep. Hadyn laid down next to him, the wolfs head laying on his chest and Rys felt a smile flit across his face for a few seconds before he went back to dreaming about his childhood and his family in Light Valley. He tried to ignore the ache being away from them left in him and concentrated on happy memories. He would see them again someday, he was sure of it.

***

Waking up was a chore he would never get used to. Rys was definitely not a morning person, he preferred to sleep in for as long as he could, but the past few days he had been forced to wake up fast once he realized where he was and who he was with. It had not been fun, so the fact that it was taking longer for him to wake up this morning told him that he was starting to get used to Tif and Hadyn and being around them, even if only a little.

It was both promising and unsettling.

He squinted his eyes open as he stared at the sunlight streaming in through the broken parts of the castle. The magic that had surrounded them the night before seemed to have been satisfied with what it found, as its presence was much less restricting today. Rys looked around with groggy eyes to see Tif sitting up some meters away in the big hall, seemingly explaining something to a enraptured Hadyn. Sometimes Rys wondered if the wolf was really only an animal, it seemed far to smart for it and this just highlighted it. He would have to look into it once they left the forest. Assuming Hadyn followed him, that is. This forest was its home, it probably wouldn't want to follow a stranger it had just met out of it.

Rys half-listened to what Tif was saying, something about goblin traditions and a warrior's tournament as he sat up and dragged his hand through his loose hair, it had apparently fell out of its tail during the night. He brushed it away from his face, contemplating cutting it as it reached his waist, but pushed the thought away in favor of getting some food. Although not all elves had long hair, most did as they, like him, had the habit of forgetting to cut it. With everything they did, all the time they had, it wasn't unusual for an elf to have hair down to their knees because they got caught up in a project and forgot to get it cut. It was one of those things that elves never tell anyone else, they let them think it was a fashion they favored or something. Now, people were more shocked when they saw an elf with short hair than long.

His hair had both tangles and ruffles in and Rys settled down against the pillar he had been sleeping next to in order to try to make some sense of it. While he may not care for it, if he left the tangles as it was, it would only be more troublesome later. It was already enough of a pain to fix.

He pulled his hands through the mess that masqueraded as hair and exhaled in despair as tried to fix it. This was what happened when he didn't keep track ot if, it mutinied against him. His pale ash-colored hair was only there to annoy him. An elf's hair was supposed to be like silk, even unbrushed, but his hair was rougher and easier to tangle. His mother used to braid it for him when he was a child, but had stopped after she had had her third child, his younger half-sister. Rys had never managed to learn to plait it by himself and so now it became a mess when he didn't sleep with it in a tail.

Once he was finished, he stood up and made his way to where both Tif and Hadyn were sitting next to a still smoldering fire. He bundled his cloak up on the way there and when he was next to them, he let it fall to the floor only to sit on it. He was worried it was starting to smell, considering how he had treated it the last few days. Usually, he only used it once in a while, when the weather was bad enough that he needed it otherwise it just collected dust in his closet.

It was already starting to look more and more brown then the dark blue it was originally due to the fact that he slept on it on the ground.

"So, do you know how to get out of the forest?" he asked Tif.

She nodded. "Yes. The forest is several kilometers deep and we're about as deep in as you can go. It took me almost three weeks to get to where I met you and then there's a mountain behind us as well." she gave him a happy grin as she continued, "But the forest seems to like you so maybe it'll be faster to get out!"

"Yeah..." Rys started, "I'm sure time will pass by so fast it'll seem like no time at all."

The rest of the morning was spent picking up their things and attempting to push the large double doors back on their hinges as they didn't want to leave the castle that vulnerable. Unfortunately, it seemed as if that ship had already sailed as nothing they did made the doors stay up and they were heavy enough—even half rotted as they were—that Tif and him only had the strength to try a few times. Eventually, they had to leave it as it was and hope for the best. With the magic that was still hanging around, admittedly less than before, chances were that anyone that attempted to rob the place would get themselves killed.

So, they packed up their things and Rys gave one last longing glance back towards the fortress half fallen apart and then they started walking back out, through the dead trees and all. Although it gave off the same eerie feeling as when they entered, it wasn't nearly as frightening this time around, maybe because they had already seen it. Nonetheless, Rys kept his eyes peeled for any surprises of the malicious sort as they traveled. It was still a freaking scary forest after all.

Hadyn once again kept them company as they walked and when lunch came around, even brought back two dead rabbits for them to eat. It was sweet of him so Rys promised that he could sleep by his side again once night fell. He had started to get used to his presence when he was asleep. Oddly enough, it made him feel safer. Not safe, as it was still a giant wolf that could most probably kill him in seconds if it ever felt like it, but safer as he seemed to keep away other monsters. It was something he appreciated as he had never claimed to be a good fighter. When the rage and bloodlust fell over him he was deadly and vicious, but otherwise he didn't really know how to fight.

In bloodlust, there was no time to think, everything was instinctual.

Afternoon came and they finally started to see greener grass and trees that didn't look dead. It hit him as he was walking next to Tif and Hadyn that he had no idea where he was going to go once he was out of the forest. His home was gone, if he ever tried to go back he would only get himself killed and he had no place else to go. He had no friends outside of Light Valley, no relatives he could ask to stay with.

Everything he had ever known was gone and he was alone in a world much more terrifying then he had ever thought. Before this he had never felt magic that dark or powerful before. The only magician that lived in Light Valley practiced mostly healing which was a Light Art and even as powerful as that was, Rys had never been in the presence of it. Before his exile he had never seen a creature as big and terrifying as Hadyn nor a goblin like Tif. He'd barely even read about them.

The gentle breeze of the wind rustled the leaves on the trees and Rys smiled at the beauty of it. The trees were turning slightly smaller and greener as they got further and further away from the fortress and Rys felt his body shiver in response to the feeling thinking about the castle gave him. There was just something about it, something aside from its obvious magical presence and magnificence. There was something he was missing, he could feel it, something that should be obvious. Well, he thought, it would come to him eventually. All he had to do was wait.

They had a forest to leave and a goblin cave to find. He got the impression it wasn't going to be as easy as Tif thought it would be. Ah but, wasn't that the fun of it?

_Well_ , Rys thought, _at least I won't get bored._

 


	4. Chapter 4

Rys was most definitely bored.

Sure, the forest was the very definition of doom and gloom, the very air being unwelcoming, but it didn't change the fact that it was a forest and it was boring. There was nothing for Rys to do, no books to read or weapons to make and he was bored. The company of Hadyn and Tif was welcoming and comfortable the longer they stayed together as they traveled and things didn't change much. They walked, hunted for food (which Rys was getting better at, which was...something at least) drank water when they found it and once night fell, they went to sleep only to start all over again the next day.

Tif kept swearing they were walking on a road, but if they were, it was a road only she could see. Even Hadyn seemed to laugh at her sometimes when she insisted she knew exactly where they were going. He had to admit it was amusing though, seeing the stubborn set of her jaw and narrowed eyes as she once again lost her temper at him for doubting her ability to find their way out of the forest. Most of the time, they walked in silence, only the sound of their footsteps present, and concentrated on making progress. Tif wanted to get to her cavern and Elders as soon as possible so she could give her report and get another, more action-filled, mission. It seemed she could be bloodthirsty when she wanted to.

He still wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a very bad thing.

And that was how their days were spent, walking and occasionally sharing funny stories, and it was, in a word, boring. It was his fault of course, he was the one that had jinxed himself, but it was still a disappointment. They were in a forest, far away from civilization and had all they needed to have an adventure (though he didn't want to go on one) the only thing missing were a powerful enemy to fight against, and they were bored. Even Tif commented that her trip had been much more action-filled on they into the forest and she blamed his presence on the lack of enemies on the way out.

She apparently still considered him under the protection of the Forest and so it was apparently all his fault. Even Hadyn had taken to disappearing from time to time as if saying he agreed with her. The only good thing was that Tif had finally stopped singing in the morning after the third time Hadyn had almost killed her for it.

The wolf was still as terrifying as ever.

So that was how it went, walking, walking and walking.

By the time a week had passed, Rys was ready to tear his hair out. He was the kind of person whose mind was always thinking and not being able to make any of the weapons or jewelry he kept thinking of was driving him insane.

It was only aggravated by Tif's persistent humming.

Rys stopped walking and leaned back on a convenient tree next to him, letting his head fall back on the hard trunk of it as he attempted to get his mind to calm down. If this was how he reacted after not even two weeks away from Light Valley, he really wasn't cut out for these kinds of things. He should start thinking about just buying a house somewhere in the middle of nowhere and becoming a hermit. Despite the fact that Tif was bored as well, she wasn't nearly as frustrated as he was, even with her fervent wish to fight someone.

He closed his eyes and just listened to the silence that surrounded them. The forest was as unsettling and fear inducing as always, yet he seemed to have gotten used to it. It was a slightly terrifying thought, that he was getting used to this eerie atmosphere, though it got a little less suppressing the further out in the forest they got. His hand carded through his hair which was once again a tangled mess, and he gave a breathless little laugh at the turn his life had taken.

This wasn't anything like what he figured his life was going to go. He always thought he was going to spend his entire life in Light Valley, never further away than a couple of kilometers and entertaining himself with laughing when the elves made fools of themselves, and then die a quiet death in his sleep from natural causes that would probably be someone's attempt at finally killing him. There was nothing in his thoughts about crossing long, partly dead forests, or making friends with goblins or meeting an animal that wouldn't try to kill him on the spot.

He gave another, slightly more bitter, sounding laugh as he considered the fact that when he died, his family would not even know. This was his life now, because he could never go back. Contrary to what other elves thought, Rys wasn't suicidal, and if going home would get him killed than he just wouldn't go there. It only sounded worse when he actually thought about and it wasn't just a faint thought in the back of his mind.

His life was in pieces and Rys had no idea how to fix it.

His dark green eyes opened just enough to see Hadyn giving him what he could only describe as a curious look from where he stood next to Tif practically in front of him. Rys gave him a small smile, no more then the turning of his lips, as he vainly attempted to reassure him that he was fine. Not that Hadyn even cared about that.

And wasn't that a depressing thought, the first animal that hadn't tried to kill him only followed him in order to sleep next to him. It was pure irony.

He straightened up and tugged his hair somewhat back into the high pony tail it had been in and gave a much more genuine smile at the duo in front of him. His eyes crinkled slightly at the corners as he attempted to show them that he truly was glad they were with him. He didn't doubt that he would be dead otherwise, either from starvation, dehydration or just from getting killed.

"I'm sorry, let's get back to walking." he said.

Tif huffed at him but nodded and they started walking again, this Hadyn being right next to him in contrast to Tif being slightly far away from them.

"Thank you," he whispered to the head high enough to reach his shoulders. "for coming with us. I wonder if you'll stop once we leave the forest though?"

Hadyn nudged him hard enough to push him forwards, only his sense of balance keeping him from falling over. "I don't know if that was your response, but for what's worth, if you left I would miss you. And I'm grateful for your assistance in keeping me alive, I don't think I would have made it this far with out you. You're still scary though." he added.

Rys got what he could swear was an eye roll in response, though how a wolf managed it he didn't know, and grinned sharply at Hadyn, his canines visible. It was a more frightening image than he thought.

He schooled his features back into an emotionless mask as they continued down what had once upon a long time ago been a path. Now, there was no difference between what Tif swore was a path and the rest of the forest. But Tif was the one that had memorized an old map of the place, so maybe she was right. The only way to tell was to follow her and the change in their surroundings was clear, though slow. It was visible that it was the beginning of autumn with more and more yellow and red leaves on trees that were no longer half-dead. The forest wasn't nearly as unsettling as it had been some week before.

"Hey Tif, what do you think about elves?" he asked her.

She snorted and grimaced. "They're pure evil! Nowhere near as powerful as they say they are. I don't understand why the orcs keeps losing to them, they should be easy to beat. Compared to their ancestors that first came here, they are nowhere near as scary."

"Ah..." Rys said. "Well, I suppose they have to be good for something if they keep winning."

"No!" she shook her head in denial. "They are stupid evil creatures that would be better off dead!"

He gave her an absent nod and his eyes glazed over as he thought. Currently, Tif was under the impression that he was a pureblooded orc, no matter how unlikely that was, and she hated elves, the other side of him. It would be better if she never knew the truth about him, he had no idea what she would do to him if she found out. Rys wondered why the thought of continuing to lie to her hurt, almost as much as the thought about how she would react once she knew the truth. Rys wasn't an idiot, he knew very well that all secrets would eventually see light, even his. And when it did, he didn't doubt that she would hate him for it, as much as the thought hurt.

His eyes cleared up again, back to their cold frosty look and he ignored the curiosity he could feel coming from Hadyn, however that was possible, and they kept walking.

***

Sometime later, they came upon a good clearing to settle down for the night as evening was coming faster and faster each evening. Tif started collecting firewood while Hadyn left to hunt, as he had been doing the past few days and Rys dragged his cloak off his body and sat down on it. The thing was now dirty enough that seeing the original blue color was next to impossible and Rys entertained the thought of washing it the next time they found water. He could hear the unmistakable sound of a river nearby and though he liked the thought of cleaning his clothes, he didn't want to ruin drinkable water. It was already hard enough to find water they could drink and though they stayed relatively close to a water source as they walked, sometimes the path took them further away from it.

He bit his lower lip slightly in thought as he tried to figure out what to do next. Their food was still bland and tasteless, if you didn't count the taste of blood that neither he nor Tif seemed to have anything against, and Tif had taken over the cooking of food while Hadyn was the one that hunted most. Honestly, Rys was starting to feel kind of useless again. While he was not the best hunter, he was learning and he kind of enjoyed it. Regardless, he now had nothing to do.

Rys exhaled and let his head drop forward in his hands. He knew he was repeating himself, but this was not how he had imagined his life to go.

He missed his books, damn it!

He missed everything.

His eyes slipped closed and he ignored everything around as he dwelled in his own misery. It had taken him time to accept the fact that he couldn't go home, and he still wasn't alright with it, but the utter mess his life had turned into was still enough to make him want to cry. He knew he was getting more and more bitter as time passed, but he really didn't know what to do now. They were going to the goblin caves, but then what? What would happen to him after that? Where could he go that people wouldn't try to kill him on sight?

Did such a place even exist?

Rys usually tried the stay positive, but damn it, his life was in pieces, he was allowed to wallow in his own misery.

The sound of the fire starting brought Rys out of his own mind and he blinked to clear away his thoughts as he concentrated on Tif sitting next to him and working on keeping the fire going. His hands transferred to the ground next to him and he tilted his head as he attempted to think of something, anything, to say to chase away the awkward silence that had befallen them. Granted, constantly being around people were grating on his nerves, but he would prefer that they would get along as long as they were forced to be in each other's company than to barely speak to each other. It was uncomfortable in an entirely different way.

"So...do you have any siblings?" Rys asked.

Tif gave him an odd look again, as if she thought he was stupid. "Of course! I have 23 siblings. Goblins give birth in litters you know." she stated in a slightly condescending tone.

"Ah, I only have two." he replied. "They're both younger then me." he added.

"Hmph, how people can settle for so few children when they die so often I will never know. By the time goblins reaches adulthood, over two thirds of us are dead, you know." Tif commented in an even voice. Rys gave her a horrified look as he thought about what that meant. He knew that goblins tended to end up being casualties in wars, no matter if they sided with someone or not, but he hadn't thought about the fact that there was only one goblin cave remaining when there used to be almost a dozen millennia ago. He wondered how long until they died out. He wondered why that thought bothered him in the first place. In Light Valley, he never gave such things or other races much thought, he was content to ignore what went on outside of his bubble of life.

He was starting to think that maybe he should have made greater efforts to learn about other people and their races. Every other word out of Tif's mouth made him feel undeniably stupid.

Thankfully, the new silence, just as uncomfortable as the first, was interrupted by Hadyn returning with a couple of dead rabbits in his mouth. Rys was honestly starting to get tired of eating rabbits, it was like it was the only other animals in the forest when he knew for a fact that it had plenty of predators. Even Tif had said that the lack of other animals were weird.

Rys gave a small smile and a thank you to Hadyn while Tif started preparing the food. He rose from where he had been sitting and made his way out of the clearing in search of the water he could hear. Rys ignored the fact that Hadyn was following him, he had no idea what went on in the wolf's head and he didn't want to know, and walked towards the water. He was getting more and more thirsty the closer he got, a side-effect of not drinking water as often as his body demanded him too. When he could see the water through the trees, he hurried and before long he stood next to it. The water was a clear blue, same as every part of the river they came too and as he kneeled and submerged his hands into it, he let a smile bloom on his face. He drank the water as fast as he could, grateful as it soothed his slightly dry throat.

Once he had drank this fill, he sat back and sent Hadyn a glare when the wolf snorted at him and he felt the amusement coming from it. He rolled his eyes and got back to his feet, turning around to go back to his cloak and food at the camp. Now that he wasn't thirsty anymore, he could feel his hunger growing.

The way back to camp was easy, as he could remember where he came from. Although he still had no idea where in the forest they were – though Tif instead they were getting somewhere – he had started getting a sense of where they had been. It wasn't even that difficult and he didn't understand why he had had a problem with it in the first place.

Rys gave Tif a polite smile with a touch of teeth when he entered the clearing. He was starting to enjoy the fact that he could smile at people unbound without being called an abomination and he was determined to take advantage of it. It was liberating in way things rarely were and Rys was bitter enough that he decided that if he ever saw a elf again, he would give them his most bloodthirsty smile. Just to see their reaction, of course.

He sat down in front of the fire and started eating when Tif gave the go ahead. The taste of blood was, as always, present but it kept the meat from being bland and tasteless, so he didn't mind. Not that it would really bother him otherwise either.

After eating, they laid down on their makeshift beds (Tif's was the bare ground, his cloak wasn't big enough to provide cover for her as well and she didn't want it) and among the glittering stars just barely to see through the treetops, they fell asleep. Not that their dreams were worth telling about, though. They were honestly quite boring.

***

The next day, they were making their way through thick green grass high enough that even Rys could barely see over it. It went all the way up to his neck and half the time, he had to spit out grass that contacted his mouth. Surprisingly, the taste was somewhere between blood and tears. If that was a sign, they Rys didn't recognize it, but his instincts were screaming at him that what they were doing was a very bad idea. Unfortunately, Tif didn't listen to him and just kept walking, even though Hadyn had once again disappeared. Where, Rys didn't know, but he was confident it was better than where they were. Sadly, Tif insisted it was the only way.

"Wait Tif, if this is the only way, how did you get to the place where we met?" Rys asked.

From where she was entangled in grass taller than her somewhere at his feet, she let out a huff and answered. "I went through here. This is where I got all those wounds, remember? A tribe of giant cats or something live here and they tried to eat me. Thankfully I got away and with you here, I'm sure it's perfectly safe now."

Rys had the sudden urge to bang his head against a tree until it cracked. "You do know I don't even have a knife, right? I lost it at that old fortress." he muttered down at her.

"I'm sure you're very powerful." she waved away his worries like they meant nothing. It gave him the urge to throttle her, but he kept himself in check and thought of happier thoughts. Like the fact that they would soon be out of the forest in a couple of days. Apparently, it had gone faster when they didn't have veer off from the path to avoid hungry animals all the time.

Rys was starting to doubt how she had gotten so far into the forest in the first place.

He pushed more grass out of his face and continued forwards. Considering the fact that Hadyn wasn't there to protect them (though he probably wouldn't anyway) they should hurry to get out of this high grass. Contrary to what Tif thought, Rys was very confident in his inability to protect them. If they didn't get out of this place as soon as possible as neither he nor Tif had a weapon – she had apparently lost hers aw well – they were going to get eaten, no two ways about it. After how far they had gotten, it seemed like a stupidly anticlimactic ending.

"Come on," he whispered to her. "we need to hurry out of this place. I am very sure I'm not as powerful as you seem to think I am."

Instead of a reply, he got a yelp as she stumbled over his black leather boots. He felt her arms hug his legs for balance and had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes, the fact that she wasn't yet an adult was easy to see.

She pushed off from him, almost tearing his brown pants in the process, and blindly moved forward. Rys dutifully followed after her and nudged her when she was about to turn back the way they came. He was getting more worried about her as they went as it seemed she had truly lost all sense of direction. It was almost as bad as Rys'. Eventually, after several hours of walking almost in circles, Rys could see the start of the forest again. Though they hadn't left the forest at all, but it made things clearer if he split it up into parts. He looked down at Tif and frowned when he couldn't see her close by. There wasn't a lot of time he could have lost her, but maybe he had?

As he wondered if he should turn back to try to find her, a growl filling the air made him stop moving, barely even breathing. His eyes were wide, because that ain't the sound of Hadyn, not to mention that Hadyn had started making sound when he got closer to them in order not to startle them after the third time he had almost scared Rys to death.

He listened as he stood still and tried to think of what to do. He had no weapon, both Tif and Hadyn were gone so there was no chance of reinforcement and although he knew hand-to-hand combat, he had never fought an animal. Whenever they attacked, someone else stepped in to fend them off and calm them down. No actual predator had ever tried to kill him (although he was still slightly unsure about Hadyn) and he had no idea what to do. He had never trained for this, no-one had told him how to handle a situation like this.

More growling filled the air as more animals joined the first one, and they were close enough that it sounded like they were right next to him. He jerked when he felt something impact with his legs and looked down, sighing in relief when all he saw was Tif holding a finger up to her lips in the universal sign of 'be silent'. He gave her a shallow nod, trying not to drag attention to them. It failed, as told to him by the growling once again filling the air, this time much louder.

He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the growing fear and terror in the pit of his stomach, standing as still as he could. He didn't dare try to hide as they had, as proven already by growling, already seen him. Terror gripped his heart and among the many chantings of "I don't want to die" in his head, he could hear his pulse racing. The rhythm of his heart picked up speed the more terrified he got and as the film of red took over his sight, even closed as his eyes were, he realized what happened.

It was silent. He could hear nothing above the loud beating of his heart. He was only faintly aware of Tif letting go of his legs as his eyes flickered open. With eyes glowing a startling shade of green, much brighter than they usually were, he turned his head and stared at the three giant catlike creatures he could see standing behind him. He could see their heads and a large part of their shoulders above the grass, and their eyes were a soul-sucking black. The coloring were what allowed them to blend into the surroundings, a green color that he had never seen on an animal before. For a second he wanted to stop, wanted to grab Tif and run and never look back and hope for the best, but then his head caught up with his fears and he realized he would never be able to outrun these creatures. He wasn't sure if even Hadyn would be able to. And now he understood why Hadyn hadn't followed them through the grass, he knew what was waiting for them.

Unfortunately for them, this had never played a part in Rys' nightmares.

Rys let out a growl of his own, trying to ignore the feeling of bearing his canines at the felines in front of him as he turned his entire body to face them. As he looked closer, he could see faint brown flecks on their pelts and he grinned as he lost the last shred of sanity he had managed to keep.

It wasn't a bloodbath.

There wasn't any ripping or tearing limbs from limbs, there wasn't even much growling. No, there was just pure cold killing and bones breaking, skin and fur slashing open and breathing blood. There was no unnecessary moves, just the easiest and fasted way to kill. A neck was broken, another had their throat torn out by sharp claws and the third tried to rip and tear its attacker back but didn't get far enough for it to matter. There was nothing of Rys left in his movements. Where he would have hesitated, his body didn't, where he would have stopped to kill them kinder, his body didn't care and where Rys would have been ready to throw up from the way he left them on the ground, his body didn't even notice it.

It wasn't a bloodbath and it wasn't coldhearted murder because there was no heart in it at all.

It was just a battle for survival.

For a moment, the world was still. His heartbeat slowed back down and the red haze covering his mind slowly started to fall apart. His breath came out in puffs in the suddenly cold air, visible as a white cloud escaping from his mouth and control of his body returned. He could feel the dark red blood covering his hands and he absently entertained the thought if his cloak had suffered any damage as it was the only clothing he had for when the weather got colder.

Rys gave a shuddering breath and closed his eyes, trying to shut the world out. His arm hurt where one of the creatures had gotten a swipe in and he took another breath as the pain started to settle in. There was the vague thought that he couldn't let it get infected without proper medicine, but his mind was more concerned with trying to calm down from the almost frantic state he was in. He quenched his eyes open and looked wildly around himself when he remembered that he wasn't alone. The grass had been pushed down and flattened by their fighting and spotting Tif was easier then he thought it would be. She was hunched down behind some large grass still standing, half hiding and on her dark grey face, her expression was that of awe and fear.

His pale hair on the edge of being white flew around his face as he hurried towards Tif. Rys almost let out of breath of relief at seeing her unharmed, but instead bent down so he was almost on the same level as her. He gave her a small smile, trying to be as reassuring as possible and he wondered if she would push him away like Jet had done when he saw the part of him that screamed orc. When she finally seemed to snap out of it, her eyes teared up and she stood up as straight as she could as she took a deep breath and let out an explosive:

"Why didn't you leave any for me?!"

Rys stared at her in shock with wide eyes that were back to their normal green color and before he knew it, he started to laugh. He threw his head back as he tumbled to the ground and leaned back on his hands, laughing like never before. He laughed to the point where tears started gathering in his eyes and fell over his cheeks and he could taste them on his tongue. When his arms could no longer hold him up, he felt back on the grass covered ground and continued to laugh, even as tears escaped his eyes and traced tracks on his grey cheeks. His hair spread out around him and he slowly stopped laughing, an hysterical giggle still escaping now and then.

It figured that a battle-thirsty female goblin would be a better friend then an elf he had grown up with.

"Thank you." he whispered to Tif that had sat herself down next to him, looking clueless about why he was laughing but willing to put up with it.

She gave him an odd look. "What for?"

"For not being scared of me." Rys answered honestly.

"Why would I be scared of you? I want to be like you!" she gushed as she looked at him with stars in her large eyes.

He gave a quiet scoff in response. "I don't think that would be a very good idea, Tif."

Her eyes narrowed as she gave him a look of displeased stubbornness. "Well, I don't think that's up to you. I can be whoever I want to be."

He let out a tired sigh as his body calmed down and he could feel the strain. He was still bleeding from his arm as well. "Alright, do whatever you want." he said and looked up at the, for once in a long time, clear sky.

It was sunset and the sky was a mix of red and orange, the majestic sight enough the cheer him up for him to smile a little in cynical amusement. He wondered what his family was doing, if they were alright. If they missed him.

The very thought was enough to wipe the smile from his face.

When Rys was very young, when he was still an only child and his mother had just married his stepfather, he used to pretend that he was on grand adventures with friends and comrades that would have his back in fights, that when he came back victorious the elves would praise him and pay attention to him. They would be so grateful that he would even get to be on the Royal Guard and no-one would ever be allowed to hurt him again. It was a child's fantasy that never failed to cheer him up. He remembered his mother reading him stories of heroes and villains, of grand quests for peace and prosperity and right and wrong under his stepfathers disapproving gaze and how he used to dream up scenarios with his mother of fighting back against the evil orc army.

He wondered what she thought of him now.

Rys scowled and pushed himself up until he was sitting next to a bored Tif and pulled his his dark grey shirts sleeve away from his arm. He inspected the wound when there was still some light left from the setting sun and frowned in thought as he saw the two claw marks on the skin of his left forearm. They were still bleeding sluggishly, and he could feel himself starting to get a little dizzy. He dragged the cloak off his shoulders and with a snarl, he bit down on the end and tore it off. He grunted as he wrapped it tight around the wound on his arm, tying it off with off with one end in his mouth and the other in his hand.

"So," he started. "do you know what those things were?"

"Nope!" Tif gave him a bright grin, that looked lopsided on her scarred face.

Rys shook his head in resignation and leaned back down on the ground. He laid there for a moment, simply drinking in the stillness and what could almost be mistaken for peace that surrounded them and then he dragged himself up off the ground and started to bundle up what was left of his cloak, tore off that it was below his knees. In the first place it only reached his heels, but he figured it was still good enough for him to use. The tear wasn't even, but a jagged mess, but he didn't think it mattered.

When he was finally finished, he stood still and took in the sight of three dead animals littering the ground, their blood drenching the grass and the stank of death already filling the air. He ignored the slight nausea in his stomach, his eyes hard as he turned away from the sight and instead looked down at Tif that had started getting up when he did.

"Well," he said. "let's keep going."

She nodded determinedly at him and marched on through the thick covering of the tall grass, the sun only giving enough light for them to continue until they reached the tree-line. Once there, the forest rose up before them, just as mystical and unsettling as before and Rys gave a slight pause before he hunched his shoulders back and stood straighter, continuing forwards with a determination he had never felt before. The world was so very different from what he had thought and he wasn't going to be out of the game yet. He still had elves to humiliate and family to reunite with, after all.

***

That night dreams came in flashes.

Unlike what he thought might happen, he didn't dream of his childhood or family and he didn't have any nightmares about what he had done, as he knew that he would do it again if necessary, though the thought unnerving. Instead, Rys dreamed of Hadyn and Tif, sitting around a campfire in comfortable silence. No-one spoke in his dream and he slept as his dream-self wondered through his mind, digging up memories and thoughts he didn't remember having.

When he woke up, it was to the forest's stillness.

Rys blinked his eyes open and groaned as the pain from his arm hit. It was a biting kind of pain, the kind you couldn't ignore even as it healed. The only good thing about it was that he didn't seem to have a fever, which most likely meant that it didn't get infected. Or that the claws of those green animals didn't have poison in them.

He pushed himself into a sitting position as he looked around the place they had finally decided to set up camp at. There was, as always, a fire in the middle which he and Tif were on opposite sides of and they had, for the first time since they met Hadyn, split watch in order to make sure no other giant green cats followed them. He had thus taken first watch as it seemed the excitement of it all had made Tif more tired than they thought. A couple of hours later, they switched and Rys went to sleep.

The trees were once again blocking off the sun.

Rys made his way to his feet as he stood up from the ground, slightly unsteady as he was still in considerate amounts of pain from the claw marks burning on his arm. They weren't deep enough to graze the bone, but it was easy to tell that it was going to scar.

He breathed in the fresh air and let a genuine smile form on his face as he looked up at the top of the trees. For the last couple of days, leaves had started to change colors faster and the air had been getting colder as winter approached, though he was sure snow was still a few months off. Yet, he was excited for when it came as it never really snowed in Light Valley, and when it did, it was a light kind of snow that melted even as it fell. No, at most there would be hail and despite everything that had happened, Rys was looking forward to it. He wanted to be able to tell his younger brother everything about it when they met again. Because there wasn't a doubt in Rys' mind that they would.

He made his way to where Tif was sitting next to the fire and carefully settled down next to her. He kept his arm from moving around to much as he looked sideways at Tif. Usually, she would already be chatting to him by now, but instead she was sitting quietly, with her head bent down so he couldn't see her eyes. It was disconcerting not to hear her be the usual chatterbox that she was and he found himself worried about her.

He hummed in thought. "Are you alright?"

She was startled by his voice bad enough that she literally jumped, and she turned wide eyes on him in shock. "Of course I'm fine! You protected me!" she exclaimed.

Rys nodded. "Yes, but are you alright?"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she frowned and tried to figure out what he meant. "Yes." she answered. "I'm alright."

"Good." he smiled at her and ignored the widening of her eyes at his expression. "Then let's keep going. We still have a long way to go, right?"

She nodded, and they smothered the fire as they prepared to leave the temporary camp and keep going to the goblin caves. Rys drew his significantly shorter cloak on as it had once again been torn apart in order to change his bandages. Thankfully, it seemed as if the wounds were already beginning to scab over, although he wondered how much would be left of his cloak by the time it healed.

They continued walking in the direction that would lead them to the goblin caves the fastest, and the imaginary path they took started twisting and turning pretty soon. Rys tried not to think too much about it, the way Tif still insisted the forest was sentient and instead concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

He was really not in the mood for any more surprises any time soon. The bloodthirsty rage he had gone into the day before had left him exhausted and he didn't think his body was up for again so soon. There was also the fact that the complete loss of control had frightened him enough that no matter how useful it was, he didn't want to enter that state again. It had been so long ago since the last time that he forgot, but that kind of utter lack of anything but an intense need to spill blood and slaughter his enemies, it scared him. It always had.

A couple of hours later, they stopped to rest for a while. While walking, Tif had commented that this was the same way that she came, and there weren't really any worse dangers on the way than those dead cats, so they could slow down. It would only take about two more days of walking if they hurried to get there. Rys was doubtful, because that was clearly a very old map, it was even falling apart at the edges, but he decided to trust her on it.

After all, she had made into the forest in the first place.

After they rested, they kept going. Despite the fact that the forest was less eerie then it had been before, it was still a scaring place with an almost dark atmosphere. Rys had a feeling that whatever had lived in that fortress was responsible for it and if he was right, maybe even the reason people apparently thought it was sentient. Rys was prepared to believe in a lot of things, but a forest capable of thought was not one of them. He just didn't understand how it could be possible.

As time passed, the pain in his arm lessened and he found that ignoring it was getting easier and easier. While Rys had a fairly high pain tolerance, this was still one of the worst injuries he had ever received. The worst one would be when he had an accident while working in the smith a couple of hundred years ago and burned himself badly. Thankfully, the elves medicine was good enough that by now it could barely be seen. It hadn't even really scarred.

Rys felt a shiver pass over him as they passed an invisible threshold in the forest. The difference between the forest around the fortress and the path they were on was getting more and more apparent with every step they took. The trees were further and further apart and significantly shorter as more and more sun passed through the treetops. Shadows crawled on the ground in response to the sudden sunlight and moss sat upon rocks and trees. Small beams of sunlight filtered through the leaves and hanging branches from trees that were no longer any wider then him as they were younger than their larger counterparts.

The feeling of being observed and having every action he did picked apart in pieces returned as they advanced out to the edges of the forest. Still, the Forest of Darlan was an enormous forest that occupied half the country of Loria and Lamirna and even at the edges of it, there was still some time to go until they exited it.

He ignored the feeling of magic that had passed over them and instead walked faster, pretending not to notice Tif's questioning had been in the forest for weeks and frankly speaking, he wasn't sure he liked it. He liked Tif and Hadyn and he liked the fact that he had gotten a chance to get better at hunting, but he didn't enjoy the feeling of constantly being watched. It was entirely different to how he used to be watched in Light Valley. It wasn't waiting for him to mess something up so the owner of the gaze could have an opportunity to screw with his life, rather it was an unnerving mix of curiosity and malevolent. It was disconcerting and made him exhausted in an entirely new way.

He just wanted to get out of the damn forest.

 


	5. Chapter 5

When night fell, Hadyn returned covered in mud and smelling of dried blood. For a second, Rys wondered where he had been and how he had followed after them when he clearly had not taken the path through the tall grass with giant green cats in it, but then he decided that it simply didn't matter. The outside world was more bizarre and strange than he had expected, and he was tired enough that at that point, he just didn't care.

Instead he fell asleep and resolved to deal with it in the morning.

By the time morning arrived and he had finished mutilating his cloak for the third time in a row, he went with his thoughts of the night before and determined that the world was a bigger place than he could imagine, and he was just going to ignore any strange happenings. Rys had no problem to simply deny what he didn't understand. It was something his mother often used to do when she was mad at people, deny to the last second that she could be wrong. From what he knew of his siblings, they had picked up that habit form her as their father was often away going on travels to acquire any and every book ever written. Sometimes, Rys thought the stoic man loved his books more than his mother. Rys had never really approved of this way of blinding yourself but decided, in light of the recent events, that he was perfectly entitled to act however he wanted.

Rys had been exiled from the only home he had ever known, if he wanted to be cynical and unreasonable, then he was damn well going to be.

He swore under his breath as he hit his foot on a rock and kept going. They were, once again, following Tif and her memorized map. If Tif was to be believed, they should be at the goblin caves by nightfall, as they had made much better time than she expected.

His mind went blissfully numb from all the walking, to the point where he didn't notice Tif stopping until he walked into her and almost pushed her off her feet. He gave a soundless snarl as his patience wore thin and he had to stop himself from leaving her there and keep going by himself. It wouldn't do anyone any good. Instead, he took a step back and a deep breath, ignored the soul piercing gaze of Hadyn at his back and apologized to Tif for almost running her over.

A distracted "It's fine." was all he got in response.

He frowned and bit at his bottom lip, ignoring the prick from his canine that almost drew blood. "Are you sure? You sound insincere."

She gave him that look that meant she thought he was stupid. "We've already walked here. Look," she pointed towards footprints in the moss on the forest floor. "those are ours."

"Oh." he said in lack of anything else.

The thought that they had been walking in a circle when Tif was actually very good at remembering which way to go was unsettling and not something he wanted to experience when they were so close to getting out of the forest that, despite being sunnier and warmer, was still eerie enough that he knew he never would have entered if he had been in his right mind.

Rys narrowed his eyes in thought. "You said that the forest doesn't want me to leave." he stated.

Tif nodded and confirmed. "Yes, it likes you."

"How much would you be willing to bet that no matter which way we go, we'll never get anywhere?" Rys asked.

In response, Tif fell silent in deep thought.

Rys swore again, this time loud enough for Tif and Hadyn to hear him and demanded, "Then how the hell are we going to leave this blasted overgrown forest?!"

Tif shrugged halfheartedly and offered no answer. When he turned around to glare at Hadyn, the wolf looked away and if he didn't know any better, he would say it looked guilty. Another swearword tore itself from his throat as his complete and utter feeling of just being done with this whole thing overwhelmed him. Rys was not the kind of person to enjoy adventures and exploring deep dark forests, he was the kind of person that liked to occasionally read about it and the rest of the time spend trying to work out how he was going to have enough money for payments and food. There was nothing to enjoy about being banished from his home and he was just so done with it.

"You know what? Fine, fine! Have it your way, stupid forest! If I'm not back within a year, use whatever magic shit you want to drag me back! Because if you let me and my friends leave, I promise you that I'll come back!" he shouted out in absolute fury, his eyes glaring with anger. He was mad enough that he didn't even think about the fact that he was yelling at a forest he didn't believe was sentient, or the fact that he had called Tif and Hadyn his friends or the fact that he promised he would come back. He just wanted out.

With a snarl and a growl in his throat he turned around from where he had been shouting at trees and hurried past a stunned Tif in order to keep going. He dismissed the thought that he never would have lost his temper like that in Light Valley and instead concentrated on trying to find whatever path there was that Tif insisted she could see. This was nowhere even near where he had wanted his life to go. He hissed at imaginary enemies and bared his teeth at trees as he passed them as he continued walking in a decidedly swift pace. If he didn't get out of this forest today, then he was going to burn whatever was left of that old fortress to the ground, angry powerful spirited be damned.

By the time he calmed down enough to remember that Tif saw the path from a very old map, he had already been walking for well over an hour. Enough time to get completely lost.

Rys stopped walking and stared at the unfamiliar surroundings around him and let his face fall into his hands with a loud groan. He grimaced at the pain coming form his left arm and disregarded the clear fact that he had no idea where he was. For a moment, he wanted to swear and rage at the world but then the fury left him as if it had never been there. Rys sagged and slouched back against the bark of a tall tree as the energy his rage had given him left. He leaned his head back and let his arms fall uselessly at his sides as he stared up at the blue sky. His dark green eyes blinked sluggishly as he tried to think of a reason he'd lose his temper like that.

Rys didn't have much of a temper, it took a lot to make him mad enough to yell at people, even if he was angry. The fact that he had shouted at a forest just made him wonder if he was going insane.

Just as he was wondering if he should try to find his way back to where he had left Tif and Hadyn behind, a low voice spoke up at his feet.

"I thought you said that you didn't believe the forest was sentient."

Rys twitched in surprise as he abruptly looked down. At his feet, looking as creepily innocent as always, Tif stood looking up at him with her big eyes full of curiosity. He scowled at her and snapped out, "That was before it made us walk in circles so we couldn't leave."

She hummed. "Anyway, you're going in the wrong direction."

He growled in frustration and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. Lead the way."

She nodded and veered off to the right as she skipped away. Rys mumbled something about heartless goblins under his breath s he hurried to follow her before he ended up stuck in this forest for eternity entirely due to his own inability to read a map, old or not.

They walked off, following the old map of Tif's that he still didn't know where it came from. He had no idea what she did with it when they weren't walking, but he also had the feeling it was something he did not want to know. So he ignored the strangeness of it and followed behind her, giving Hadyn a small, tired smile when he started following along as well.

Hours passed as the sun moved in the sky as they walked. Instead of stopping for rest and food as they had the previous days, this time they kept going. Both Rys and Tif were of the opinion that the sooner they got to the goblin caves, the better. Rys didn't know if the forest was truly sentient and had taken his offer or not, but they no longer walked in circles. Their pace was fast, Hadyn snarling at random bushes and tree from time to time which Rys resolutely ignored and dismissed from his thoughts. He was already busy wondering if he should come back to the forest within a year just to be safe or not.

Eventually, they came to a stop in front of a rickety old bridge hanging over a rushing river that he thought was the same one they usually drank water from. It seemed to have magnified in the last day or so they had been walking.

Rys' face was completely devoid of an expression as he walked across the bride and stepped over the clearly rotten pieces of wood. He heard Tif gasping dramatically behind him every time the bridge swayed, and he rolled his eyes at her need to make it more dramatic then it was. In no time at all, he was over the bridge and on the other side of the river. When he turned around to watch Tif cross it, he saw Hadyn standing in the middle of it, radiating smugness. He had the urge to laugh at the comic picture the large wolf made, but he was more scared that the flimsy bridge wouldn't be able to hold his weight and so instead he called out for Hadyn to go faster.

Hadyn crossed the bridge, this time with Rys and Tif both twitching as it swayed and creaked ominously under his weight. When he finally crossed, Rys gave in to his urge and let out a short laugh that he quickly smothered behind his hands as he turned away from a smug Hadyn standing beside him. Tif easily made it across the bridge, showing that she had indeed done it before and then they kept on walking, this time on a clear path.

Tif no longer mentioned the map as they followed along the road that was easy to see and as the sun fell farther in the sky ad evening was coming closer, they continued to walk as the ground rose slightly higher and higher. As predicted, once night started to fall, they made into a wide clearing and where Tif excitedly babbled out that the entrance to the goblin caves was.

The darkness of the oncoming night made it harder to see but when Tif pointed out the crack in the stone of the mountain, it was obvious.

With a shrug, he followed Tif through it.

***

It didn't take long for the cave to become wider, although it was still low enough that Rys had to duck when he walked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. Behind him, Hadyn was trailing after them, seeming to be completely fearless at the fact that they had essentially left the forest (technically they were still in it, but they weren't far from the edge of it) and Tif was walking in front of him.

From time to time, a low torch would light up the dark tunnel and Rys could see ahead.

After gradually walking lower and lower as the ground turned and changed, several meters since the entrance to the tunnel, Rys could see a light at the end of it. He let a small smile grace his face as he picked up speed in response to Tif hurrying ahead. As they neared the exit to the light, Rys stopped and put his good hand on the cave wall as he slowly walked closer. If it was a trap, though he didn't think it was, he didn't want to run right into it. At the very end of the tunnel, Rys stopped again and looked out at the world that unfolded before him.

It was staggering.

He looked out as he took a step into the faint light from torches and looked down from the platform they stood on. The cave was wide and down the walls followed stairs and bridges connected to one another that formed a complicated web that went lower and lower. He couldn't see the bottom of it. When he looked up, he could see more bridges and stairs rising with the walls and from the ceiling he could faintly make out hanging lights. Despite the fact that it was nothing like Light Valley, Rys thought it was one of the most breathtaking sights that he had ever seen.

Goblins were everywhere. By the walls, crossing bridges, they were everywhere. Somehow, he had imagined that there weren't many goblins left but as he looked at the grey goblins, he could easily see thousands of them, all within a cave that really should have a more grand name.

"This is where you're from?" he asked Tif in a slightly breathless voice. Perhaps the sight wouldn't mean much to someone that had seen more of the world than him, but to Rys, it was the first time he saw anything like it.

Tif only nodded in response as she walked off the platform to a hanging bridge, walking with sure steps that said she had done it a hundred times before. Rys got the slight urge to laugh hysterically as he thought about Hadyn actually walking on it. He couldn't imagine it and although he tried to deny it, the thought that Hadyn would be to heavy and a bridge would break under his weight and he'd fall to his death was worrying.

Rys turned around to look at Hadyn that was standing behind him, curiosity shining in his demonic eyes and said, "You don't have to follow us anymore. I'm sure you have other things that you want to do."

The giant wolf let out a growl in response and Rys wondered for a moment if he'd said something he shouldn't have, if Hadyn was finally going to kill him. But after a moment, the wolf let out what sounded almost like a huff, stared at the hanging bridges and rolled its red eyes at it turned around and re-entered the tunnel. Rys breathed a sigh of relief, the very of being killed almost having paralyzed him before he turned back to the bridge Tif had almost entirely crossed and hurried after her.

"Ah, I'm sorry for having you wait on me." he said in apology to her as he finally crossed the bridge as well.

She only nodded in response and started walking again.

It didn't take long for Rys to be completely lost. The web of bridges and stairs were practically a maze that they navigated, going both up and down in equal turns and no matter how much he concentrated, he couldn't find a pattern to it. As they passed them, the goblins stopped and stared and while they nodded to Tif and greeted her, when they saw Rys all they did was stare at him with their big eyes wide enough to take up half their faces. Some of the goblins were tall enough to pass his waist but most were up to around his knees. Thankfully, this didn't seem to affect the size of the bridges, most likely because of the sheer number of goblins that used them.

Eventually they stopped in front of a tunnel in the mountain, several ways down then then they had entered through. Tif turned around and stared up at him with her big eyes serious as she stated, "This is the entrance to the Hall of the Elders. Be sure to be polite when you speak to them, they hold grudges like nothing else. If they don't like you, they might even put a bounty on your head."

Rys swallowed and nodded in acceptance. He'd come this far, farther then he'd ever been before, and he wasn't going to stop now.

They entered the tunnel, the ceiling being significantly higher so he didn't need to bend his head and torches were close enough on the wall to each other that the light filled the entire tunnel. From top to bottom the walls were decorated with cravings and sketches of things that had long since passed, telling a story long lost. If he'd had the time, he would have stopped to stare at it for hours as the fascinating images past them by. Intercepted with it were words, written in a language he couldn't understand, but similar enough to the Old Runes that he thought he could decipher it if given enough time.

For the first time since he had been cast out by his own people, his eyes were alive as he fought to take in everything around him and memorize it. He could be kind and polite to the Goblin Elders just for the chance to study this.

He'd never seen anything like it before.

Tif stopped in front of a pair of double doors at the end of the tunnel, after they had already past two others much more simple doors. The doors were unnecessarily big considering the size of the average goblin but Rys wasn't going to complain. Instead he stood silently in front of them and waited for Tif to speak the goblin standing at attention next to the doors. This goblin was the largest he had seen thus far, coming up above his waist and it was dressed in heavy dark armor with a battle ax in its hand. Its horns were larger then Tif's, apparently signifying that this goblin was of the female gender and Rys had the urge to shiver in fear when its eyes glared a hole in his head in response to something Tif had apparently said.

He had the insane urge to run and hide from the battle-hardened goblin that continued glaring at him even as she started to push the doors open.

When the doors were fully opened, Tif gave a smile to the scary goblin guarding the doors and resumed walking. Rys shook off his unease and trailed after her with his head held high as he crossed the threshold and entered a room with an entirely different atmosphere.

A tingle passed through him, presumably in response to some sort of magic in the room and as he looked out at the stone table in the middle of the candlelit room, what he found was eleven stone chairs surrounding an oval shaped table, where the oldest goblins he had ever seen were sitting and staring at him with indecipherable expressions on their faces.

Rys gulped and let out a nervous sounding hello in a shaky voice.

Somehow, this group of goblins were scarier than even an angry Hadyn.

The goblin closest to him, with horns that twisted and curved and formed some sort of bone crown around the goblins head, frowned at him and gave a look that simultaneously told him to shut up and questioned his intelligence. It reminded him so strongly of Tif that for a second, he had to look down to make sure she was still standing next to him.

He clamped his mouth shut and gave a small bow instead, hoping he hadn't made too bad of a first impression. He saw a brief flash of approval in the same goblins eyes before it was hidden, and an expressionless face once again stared back at him. A voice clearing, and a small cough made him turn his eyes away from the goblin closest to him and instead look at the once farthest from him. This one was presumably male, as it didn't have any horns and its eyes looked at him with obvious disapproval.

Moreover, it was old.

What little hair it had was stark white, with a white beard flowing down from its face, at least half a meter long. Its face was wrinkled enough that just making out its eyes were difficult as they were narrowed in that way that signified bad vision, but he wore no glasses. Even from this distance, he could make out that the fancy blue clothes he wore were made of silk and they were littered with golden tribal markings, probably somehow significant to the goblins culture. While Rys didn't know what standing this goblin had amongst its people, Tif straightening up and standing shock still let him know he was important enough that he probably shouldn't do anything to potentially offend him.

He had a feeling this was the goblin that would put a bounty on his head if it didn't like him.

"Now that we're all present, why don't you deliver your report, Apprentice Tif?" a low gravelly voice came from the same goblin.

Tif took a step forwards, as she cleared her voice and stopped walking. "Of course, Elder Jinya." she proceeded to recount everything that had happened in the Forest of Dorlan as Rys tuned her out, already knowing all of it.

Once she was finished, she stopped speaking and just stared at the group of elders collected by the table, all of them wearing thoughtful expressions.

A third goblin, that sat to the left of the old male goblin at the edge of the table, hummed thoughtfully and said, "Your name is Rys, correct?" Rys nodded in response to the question that was stated rather than asked.

"You promised the Forest that you would be back within a year and that it could use whatever means necessary to drag you back if you aren't. This is a problem. Not only is the forest completely self-aware, it has an excellent memory and the magical powers to get you back in an instant. I imagine the only reason you were able to get out in the first place was due to this promise." the goblin explained musingly.

Rys only nodded again to show he understood. He was very much aware that he would need to go back to the forest within a year, but he had never said anything about staying once he was back. He had a world to see and he intended to do so. Over a very long time, because time was something he had very much of and he wasn't fond of adventures. Regardless, there was things he had only ever read about that he wanted to see now that he had the chance too. Seeing the goblin caves had only cemented the thought that there was more to the world than he knew.

Another goblin spoke up. "Nonetheless, it is the problem of the fortress we are here to discuss, Argus. Don't forget your priorities."

"Yes, yes." the goblin said, an expression on his face indicating that this was a reoccurring conversation.

"So," another goblin, this one at the middle of the table and dressed in elaborate blue robes, began. "there are definite magical presences at the old Fortress?"

Tif nodded. "Yes, Rys said he could feel multiple ones. He says the only way to get rid of them would be to hire a master magician."

"Hmm," the goblin closest to them that Tif resembled commented. "so, should we pool our resources and hire one or should we wait for someone else to take action, is the question. We cannot have been the only one to notice and if I know anything about the outside world, I believe a quest shall be issued to banish this dark presence soon enough. Can we afford to leave it to them? Further the more, does the presences even need to be banished in the first place?"

"What?! Or course they need to be, they are the darkest things I've felt in decades!" the male goblin furthest away shouted objection.

The goblin he was starting to suspect was related to Tif spoke up in response. "Yes, it is a dark thing indeed, but does anyone ever go there? Has it done anything even remotely malicious? Both Tif and Rys entered the castle and even slept there and have come to no harm. As I see it, if we leave it alone, I believe it will do us the same courtesy. But if magicians start poking around there, who knows how it will react. Not to mention that Rys stated this was the most powerful magic he had ever sensed, who is to say any magician they cough up will even be strong enough to banish them. No, I believe it would be in our best interest to leave it alone."

Some of the goblins were starting to nod along. "Further the more," she continued. "I can feel it even this far down in the mountain, it is a fearsome thing indeed. Pissing it off would only lead to our doom, something we have strived to avoid for centuries. We should think about this rationally and come up with a solution that won't endanger out race." her voice was raspy at the end and when she stopped speaking, she leaned back against the back of her chair, as if it had taken a huge amount of energy to speak.

The other goblins that had nodded along spoke up and before he knew it, an entire debate about what was to be done started up and Rys stopped following it when he no longer understood the language they spoke.

***

The meeting dragged on for hours.

Rys was worried enough about offending them that he didn't ask to leave, and instead waited until they finished to be dismissed. Tif stayed beside him next to the wall that he had started leaning against when his legs had gotten tired of just standing. After a while, the pain in his arm had started to get his attention more than the goblins around the table, as it pounded in his head and could no longer be ignored.

It was Tif that noticed first. "Are you alright, Rys? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

He contemplated about saying no, but with the way it hurt and the fact that he had absolutely no healing knowledge besides how to keep it from getting infected, he thought better of it. "Ah, I think that would be best."

"Ehm," Tif took a step forwards and caught the attention of goblins closest to them. "Rys' wounds needs looking after, so we'll be going to the infirmary now."

They looked stunned for a moment before the one closest to them that had previously spoken let out a sigh and nodded in confirmation. "Ah, of course. You have told us what we wanted to know, you're free to leave."

Tif smiled and Rys bowed in thanks as the left the room with the old goblins behind. A guard in the room opened the door for them again and when they stepped out, the same goblin that had guarded it when they entered several hours earlier was still there. Again, the goblin glared at Rys the entire time he was within its line of sight and Rys shivered in fear again. Goblins really were scary creatures.

They exited the tunnel the same way they came and started making their way up along the walls. They crossed bridges and walked up and down stairs in a pattern that only Tif could see as they made their way to another tunnel several meters above where the meeting room was. Once they found it, they entered it and it turned out to be a much shorter entrance, only about a meter long before it was blocked by a door. Tif pushed the door open and Rys had to bend his head in order to cross under it.

Behind the door was an open space that was obviously an infirmary, with the many beds that stood in row upon row. Between them hang sheets that could be moved to make it more private in the event of serious and embarrassing injuries. The beds weren't large enough for him to lay down on them, so he found an unoccupied one and sat down on it.

It only took a couple of minutes before a goblin, again with the horns signifying its female gender, arrived and started asking Tif questions in the goblins language. After they were answered, she instructed him to remove his shirt and makeshift bandages, so she could get a good look at the wounds.

She hummed in thought as she poked and prodded the three deep scratches in his left forearm. "Hmm, I don't see any signs of infection, so it shouldn't be life threatening. Regardless, all of them will require stitches and they will undoubtedly scar."

"That's alright." Rys said absentmindedly, his gaze fixed on a point of the wall opposite him.

The next hour was filled with pain and numbness as a needle repeatedly went through his skin in order to stitch up his wounds. The healer was very good at her job, her stitches fast and effective, all very neat. He didn't think it would be very terrible scars, not like some of what he'd seen when a non-healer had attempted to stitch someone up in emergency situations. Often, those stitches and wounds ended up infected and gruesome, a mark of failure to be born for all eternity. However, it was obvious that this healer knew what she was doing and despite the pain and the unsettling sensation of feeling a needle go into his skin, it wasn't that bad. She had used a salve to numb the area around it and although it only really took the edge of it, it did make it much more bearable.

Like she said, she stitched up all three wounds and then bound them tightly in new white bandages that she said she would redo twice a day for a few days forwards. Rys was about to argue that he could do it himself but thought better of it when he saw the way she then started to push another bed over to him. Soon after, another goblin ran in with an armful of rope.

"Ah, good work Ran, now help me tie them together." the healer ordered the much younger male goblin.

Rys watched, a little incredulous, as they pushed the other bed right up next to the foot of his and started to tie the rope around the legs of the beds, securing them together. His green eyes were full of amusement as he watched them run to and fro with the heavy rope. Once they had fastened them, the healer let out a huge sigh and said,

"This is why I didn't become a warrior. It's too much work."

"Listen," the healer continued in a strict voice. "you'll be staying here where I can keep an eye on you for the next two days, do you hear me?"

"Of course." he promised.

The healer nodded, satisfied, and left to go tend to the other patients. As she did, Tif walked forwards from where she had been leading against a wall, waiting for them to be finished.

"I need to go take care of some business, will you be alright on your own?" she asked.

Rys gave her a smile meant to reassure her of his ability to take care of himself. "I'll be fine, don't let me stop you."

Tif nodded in response and with a no-nonsense face left the infirmary. Rys was kind of sorry for whoever it was she had business with, he had the feeling it wasn't going to go however it was they wanted it to. Tif had the same face as the first time she met him and Hadyn, one of determination. He huffed slightly before he scooted down and laid down on the temporary bed that thankfully fit him now. After a while, at which point he was nearly asleep, he felt someone pull a warm blanket over him and with the thought that for the first time in weeks, he would be sleeping in a bed, he smiled softly.

He didn't dream that night.

***

The next morning, Rys woke up feeling more refreshed then he had in weeks. Although the mattress he was sleeping on was thin and he didn't have a lot of space to maneuver on, it was far more comfortable than the cold ground he had been sleeping on for weeks.

He blinked his green eyes open and looked at the white sheet hanging not far from his bed, the only privacy that was available in the infirmary.

Rys pushed the blanket that was thankfully still covering him down and sat up carefully to avoid aggravating his injuries. He made sure he leaned back on his uninjured arm and let the one with three rows of stitches lay on his lap while he waited for his sleep to completely leave him. Sometime during the night, his hair had fallen loose and pooled down on the bed behind him, the strands of hair a paler grey than his skin.

He let out a small yawn and blinked his eyes as he felt himself becoming more and more aware. He dragged his hand through his hair to push it behind his ears as it was falling in front of his eyes and was slightly annoyed that his shorter bands framing his face fell everywhere. A chuckle interrupted his inwards ranting at his hair for all the trouble it caused and when he looked back up, he saw the healer that had sewed him up standing next to him. It was abrupt enough that he couldn't quite stop himself from twitching with surprise.

"I assume you had a good sleep?" the healer asked with a smile tilting their lips.

Rys stared at her for a moment, still shocked by how easily she had sneaked up on him. "Ah, yes. It was fine."

The healer let out a low laugh, as terrifying as it was disturbing and said. "I believe Apprentice Tif will be visiting you soon, so I won't take up much of your time. You are free to leave the infirmary and explore, but I want you back here tonight to sleep again so I can keep an eye on you. The slightest twinge from the wounds and you come back here right away, understood?"

Her face was serious, and she suddenly looked far more frightening then a healer had a right to be. Rys was starting to think that goblins were just a frightening race period. He nodded to her in response and her expression lighted and she smiled at him, disturbingly gentle and left to presumably go check on her other patients.

Rys let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding when he could no longer see her, and he laid back down on the bed. He supposed he would wait for Tif if she was coming like the healer said and then go eat with her. He was hungry, but he didn't know what they served in goblin infirmaries if they served anything at all and figured it would probably be safer to just wait for Tif to arrive. While he could eat pretty much anything, he had seen the weird faces Tif had sometimes made when they ate, like it wasn't to her tastes, and the last thing he wanted was food poisoning on top of everything else.

While he waited for her, he wondered how Hadyn was doing, a little horrified to find that he actually missed the beast.


	6. Chapter 6

The hall Tif brought him to was big, the ceiling easily high enough for him to comfortably stand tall. Rows upon rows of carved stone tables lined the walls, with a long oval shaped table in the middle, containing bowls and plates filled with all sorts of food. The smell was different from what he was used to, even after spending the last few weeks in a forest. It permeated the air and although it didn't smell too bad, he still sat down in a table as far from the food as he could manage. Tif didn't even give him a glance before she was off, collecting a mountain of food on a wooden plate.

His eyes rested on her as she walked back towards him, her face a perfect picture of glee at the chance to eat something familiar again. If he wasn't aware of his own lack of cocking ability, he would have been offended, but as it was, she had been the one to cock most of their food anyway.

When she sat down in front of him, he gave her a small polite smile and stood up to collect his own food.

In the middle of the room, next to the large food-filled table, he grabbed a plate and started looking for something to sate his hunger. He stayed clear of the food he didn't recognize and didn't even look at the ones that gave off an incredibly strong smell. There was a small collection of fruit and vegetables on the center of the table that he gratefully picked of anything that looked well enough to eat. Some of it were clearly rotten and too old, while others had been picked to early, but he found a satisfactory number good enough to eat.

His gaze swept over the rest of the table and when he found the meat he grabbed some of it as well. On the edge of it, there was a pitcher full of water next to a number of clean wooden cups. He filled one with as much as he could without it falling over the edge and made his way back to the corner of the room, where Tif had already started eating, apparently not caring to wait for him. He sighed but didn't say anything about it as he sat down.

Rys let his gaze wander as he ate, examining the goblins that sat here and there in the room. There weren't many of them, from what he gathered from Tif's babbling on the way to the hall, most had already eaten as they were up with dawn, despite the fact that they couldn't see it.

The goblins had the same general features, small bodies with powerful limbs and skin the color of ash. Most of them had hair, short and shaggy, with the quality of straw and colored black. Tif didn't have any, but she had already assured him that that was her own choice. The females had horns, two that were located somewhere above the ears and the longer and bigger they were, the older the goblin was.

He ate his food absentmindedly and instead let his mind focus on wondering what he was supposed to do now.

He had a year before he needed to be back in the forest or it would use whatever kind of magic it had to take him back by force, if its sentience was to be believed. While Rys was still hesitant to believe the forest really was as self-aware as everyone seemed to be making it out to be, a promise was a promise and he would keep it. Besides, there was a kind of security and comfort in knowing that despite whatever happened from here on out, he had a place to return too. Even if it wasn't his home or somewhere he particularly liked.

He sighed again when he was finished eating, waiting for Tif that had decided to get herself a third helping to finish as well.

His gaze drifted to the ceiling and the any cracks that littered it. "What am I supposed to do now, Tif?" he asked, voice monotone and flat.

She looked up at him from where she was sitting as she sat her cup of water down. "Whatever you want."

He mustered up enough energy to give her a half-hearted glare in response. "I'm asking because I don't know what I want. Things used to be so clear, and now everything is ... lost. I'm lost."

She shrugged at him. "Then find something you want to do."

"You say that as if it's so easy." he muttered.

She looked at him, her face contemplative. "Then come with me when I leave again and find something to do."

"You're going back into the forest?" he asked with surprise coloring his voice.

She gave him another look that said she was once again questioning his intelligence. "No. I'm going to find out what the other races are going to do about the magic presences in the fortress. If they're going to try to do something the will piss off the spirits, then we need to know so we can stop them or move."

He nodded in understanding but offered no other response.

The rest of the day he spent in the infirmary, contemplating Tif's offer. While it would mean leaving the relative safety of the goblin caves and going on another uncomfortable trip, it would also give him a chance to find out what would happen to the spirits in the castle. He hated to admit it, but he was curious and equally horrified to once again find that he missed Hadyn and wondered how he was doing. While he wasn't very fond of the creature — it still scared him half to death — knowing he was traveling with a deadly animal gave him some kind of bizarre safety in the thought that hopefully other deadly creatures would leave them alone.

The fact that he honestly missed the beast was still horrifying though.

He fell asleep while he thought about his now completely lost future and the life he no longer had.

***

The morning after, he was free to leave the infirmary permanently and no longer had to spend the nights there. The healer had redressed all the bandages and put salve on his wounds again to prevent infection before she let him leave. Tif was busy and couldn't come get him and as he was free to wander about as he wanted, as long as he stayed away from the private quarters, he was told to make his own way to get food. As this was no problem, as he easily remembered the way to the hall from the day before, he didn't object to it and instead made his way there to eat. Once he had eaten, he exited the hall and tried to figure out the way to the tunnel they had entered the mountain through as that was where Tif said she would wait for him so they could leave together. He had already collected all of his things and had been given a new cloak that wasn't torn to pieces by the healer. It was a grey color to his formers dark blue, but it was comfortable and would work well in the winter as it got colder.

Rys spent the next few hours going up and down on half remembered stairs and bridges as even with his good memory, it was just too chaotic for him to remember it clearly after just walking down it once. He often got corrected by goblins when he worked up the courage to ask them for help and had to go back the way he came in order to get to the correct platform. It got to the point that he was so lost it wasn't even funny anymore and he resorted to just ask any goblin he could see for help, far too tired of it and worried that Tif would leave without him to let his uneasiness around strangers dictate his actions.

Eventually, he managed to make his way just a level under where the platform was and when he looked up, he could clearly see Tif standing next to the entrance eating for him, this time dressed in more clothes and equipped with a backpack that he hoped contained a weapon he could borrow, as he was no longer in possession of one.

He grinned at her in relief, his canines clearly showing and making him look far more ferocious than he was, and hurried up the last stairs to climb up to her.

Once he was stood next to her, he gave her a smile and said, "Shall we go?"

She gave him a far too bloodthirsty grin in response for a goblin the equivalent of a teenager for his comfort and answered, "Of course."

***

The path they took meant that they would be going on the edges of the forest, never really entering yet never really leaving it either. They walked on a path in the middle of a strange and unsettling mix of trees filled with what he could now almost sense as magic and other plants and so on that were so ordinary they meant practically nothing to him. Even in Light Valley, the plants had a kind of natural magic in them, a result from being so close to elves, beings that were connected to nature in a way few things were, and to feel none of that which he was used to in these plants were both unsettling and discomforting. If this was how the rest of the world felt like, he would almost prefer the forest to it, as it at least felt alive to his senses, even with parts of it completely dead.

Rys let his eyes rest on the ground as they walked, occasionally looking up enough to make sure he was still following Tif and her much newer map than the one from before. He let his mind go blissfully empty as he followed the now familiar routine of just walking. It was relaxing in a way.

It was similar to the meditating he had done while learning to control his bloodlust.

His were empty and unseeing as he followed the feeling of Tifs presence rather than the sight of her and vaguely he registered that this was a skill he didn't used to have and he couldn't remember where he learned it, but his almost meditative state meant that he didn't linger on the thought and instead made use of his newfound ability, even though he did have a sinking suspicion that this had something to do with that magical forest.

By the time night arrived, they had walked far enough that they had completely left the forest and against his better judgement, Rys found himself missing the comforting sense of magic he had gotten from the Forest, which he only noticed had been there when he could no longer sense it. He found himself looking back at the last few trees he could see that belonged to the forest, but eventually they left even that sight behind them. He turned around, his eyes once again looking at the expanse of a large meadow with grass that went up to about his knees in front of him.

The meadow was completely normal and hid none of the things that you needed to be cautious of in the forest but Rys found himself appreciating the sight. It was the most normal thing he had seen in weeks and a smile graced his lips unconsciously as he took in the peaceful atmosphere, so at odds with the one they had left behind.

They made their way through the grass until they came to a beaten down path. Tif hurried ahead when she could see it, relieved that she would no longer get hit in the face by grass and let out a comically huge breath of relief once she stood on it. Rys had the hysterical urge to laugh at her but the suspicion that she would truly leave him behind if he did such a thing made him hold it in. That didn't mean he wasn't laughing in his head though.

Tif gave him a suspicious glare but only said, "If we follow this path we'll reach a village by sundown. You can con someone into letting us sleep in beds, can't you?"

"Ah..." he glanced up at the sky above them, "that might be a problem."

She glared up at him, her scar making her look terrifying. "And why is that?"

He continued to stare up at the sky and answered, "I don't have any money."

"I know that. I'll let you borrow mine, just get us beds." she demanded in a low voice.

Rys let out a low pained laugh. "If you hadn't noticed, my skin is grey and I have the feeling the village we'll be entering is a human village, correct?" he asked and when she nodded he continued speaking. "I can't exactly blend in. It's blatantly obvious that I'm not human. They'll probably rather kill us before they let us sleep in their beds. Not to mention that you looked like a really small old evil witch and are unmistakably a goblin."

She scowled at him, the expression twisting her face into something inhuman. "I know that too. I'm not stupid. But by the time we'll get there, it'll be dark and humans don't have very good lights. I'm sure you'll be able to fix us something."

She then turned around and continued walking down the road, completely ignoring Rys where he still stood, shocked by the blatant use of her comely and utterly inhuman features in order to scare him into obeying. The fact that she'd even noticed he was still slightly scared of her despite the vast difference in size and power was incredible in itself, as if there was one art he had mastered, it was the art of looking indifferent when he was terrified.

He let out a sigh and muttered, "I really hope the humans don't have swords."

An answering growl next to him made him jump in fright and with wide eyes he looked to his left and almost swallowed a breath at the sight of Hadyn standing next to him, looking completely relaxed. Hadyn's eyes were practically spitting fire and for a moment, he had the terrifying vision of Hadyn coming to drag him back to the forest, but before he could start to frantically run away, Hadyn gave him one of those looks — those that said he was being stupid again and made him doubt just how intelligent the creature was — and started walking off after Tif.

For a few seconds, he just stared after them, then he whispered, "This is turning into one of my nightmares." and began to follow after them as well.

He just really hoped the humans didn't have swords.

***

True to Tif's prediction, by the time they reached the human village, the sun was starting to set and the temperature was dropping. He could see why she would want to sleep in a bed, but he really didn't know how that was going to happen. Especially not with Hadyn hanging around scaring everyone half to death.

They stopped just outside of it for a few minutes in waiting for it to get darker and Rys dragged the hood of his new cloak over his head in order to keep anyone from seeing his pointed ears and hopefully keep them from noticing his skin tone.

After repeating to Hadyn that he couldn't follow them into the village multiple times and hoping he would be smart enough to listen, they set a rapid pace and entered the village. Rys let his gaze travel all over the village, trying to pinpoint anyone they could bully into accepting them for the night and after seeing several buff humans with large bodies and swords hanging from their belts, Rys took in a deep breath and prepared to tell Tif that they would be sleeping outside tonight. As much as it pained him to admit it, he had no idea how to use a sword, much less fight against one.

It would only take a swordsman a few seconds to kill him.

Rys cast his eyes down on the ground where Tif had been standing and upon not seeing her, started to panic. As his gaze flew wildly from one place to another, he finally caught sight of her standing in front of one of those same buff, large humans with a sword. He ran to her as fast as he could and in the blink of an eye, he stood behind her and took in the weirded outlook the human was sporting.

In his panic, he didn't bother to think before speaking. "I'm so, so, so very sorry, sir! My grandmother is very ill you see and isn't right in the head. I apologize for anything she could have said to offend you!" and he bowed deeply to the human that was now gaping at him in shock.

"Ah, it's alright. But are you sure she's your grandmother, she's very... short." the human said in a highly doubtful voice, his hand already on his sword.

Rys let his eyes drift from side to side as he frantically tried to think of a way out of this. "Well...it's a curse, I think. Yes, it's definitely a curse, it makes you small and crazy. Really, we're traveling to find a magician to undo it before the same very tragic fate befalls me as well."

"A curse?" the human asked in a flat voice.

"Yes..." Rys hesitantly began to answer and picked up speed as he got surer, "it's a very obscure and old one, you wouldn't find it in any books. But I assure you, its tragic fate has taken the sanity and looks from generations of my family. We are on a grand quest to stop it before I turn into a small crazy person and the last person able to support and get money for all these crazy people is gone. Truly, it's a tragedy."

By now, both Tif and the human was looking at him as if he were insane.

Rys continued speaking as he suddenly shot forward until he stood practically face to face with the human. "You wouldn't be willing to take care of my crazy grandmother while I go on this quest, would you? It would take a weight off my shoulders if I no longer had to stop her from burning to death because she thought the fire looked pretty."

As the human looked at him and took a step back, Rys only continued speaking, completely ignoring the gathering of more humans around them. "Great, it's decided then! I'll just leave her here with you and continue on my own! Truly, you're doing me a huge favor, I promise to pay you back if my relatives ever die and take their money grubby greed with them. Thank you so much for volunteering for this, I don't know what I would have done if forced to be in her presence any longer! Truly, you're a lifesaver!"

As Rys continued to gush about what a great person the human was, he watched as the human got more and more pale by the second until they got enough and barked out, "There's no way I'm taking care of a crazy old cripple!"

Rys stumbled back with surprised shock written on his face, though the cloaks hood prevented anyone from seeing it and looked at the human with as much fright as he could make himself project. It was incredibly easy, he just had to think about the first time he met Hadyn.

"Wha-what?" he asked, wide-eyed and with a small voice.

As he did this and took another step back, the human became aware of the crowd of people around them and disapproving looks they were giving him. Rys only stared out at the human as he stepped in front of Tif in a parody of protecting her from his harsh words.

"How could-how could you say that?" Rys asked, his voice low and with the beginning of anger starting to drip from his words.

Just as he was about to explode at the human and start yelling about the difficulty of caring for crazy people that didn't listen to a word you said, an old human lady shuffled forwards through the crowd and stopped next to the human man that now looked as pale as a newly washed sheet.

She took a deep breath and straightened up as much as she could while still leaning on her cane. "I have never, never been more disappointed in you David. How you could say that to an honorable young man that only wants what's best for his family is beyond me. I have raised you better than this. Now go over there and invite them over for tea and I'll try to sort out your mess. You better realize this David, there are far more crazy people in this world than there are sane ones. Now go, go. Don't make me hit you with my cane."

The human, apparently named David, nodded in stunned silence and slowly shuffled over to where Rys was still standing in front of Tif.

The human cleared his throat multiple times before he attempted to speak. "You, ah... you're welcome over for tea. If you want too, of course."

Rys only mutely nodded, still too riled up by his unexpected performance to speak. When he looked down at Tif standing behind him, she gave him a smug look and said, thankfully too low for any of the humans around them to hear:

"I told you you could do it."

***

The house the old human brought them too was on the edge of falling apart. Half the ceiling was caved in, the wooden walls were littered with holes and the glass of the windows had long since been broken. Simply put, the entire structure was a deathtrap.

Naturally, Tif loved it.

Rys frowned as he stared at it, wondering if it was worth it. The thought that it would fall in on their heads wouldn't leave him alone and though all he wanted to do was run as fast as possible in another direction and take his chances with camping outside, Tif was surprisingly set on sleeping indoors for the night. Considering she had had no problem in the Forest before, he didn't understand why she was insisting now, but she could be downright terrifying when she wanted to.

So Rys let out a deep breath and continued forwards to the almost broken door and entered in through the entrance following after the two humans, Tif entering after him. He could hear her take in the smell of the house, a scent of decay mixed with dust.

Rys sneezed before he could stop himself, not used to the sheer amount of dust around him, but the humans barely gave him a glance for it so he assumed it wasn't anything rare. He gave a cursory glance around the small room they were led into, not finding it anything special. There was a fireplace in the corner, covered in far more soot than it could be healthy, and a couple of chairs gathered around a dining table that had clearly seen better days. His face gave a weird twitch as he slowly and carefully lowered himself onto one of the chairs, the one farthest from the fireplace and closest to the entrance, intent on being able to run out if anything unlucky were to happen.

Tif jumped up onto the chair to his left, a half-broken piece of furniture as it was, and it shook ill-boding for a moment before it settled still and Tif leaned back on it, relaxed and clearly enjoying herself. The old human woman gave a hoarse laugh at Tif, apparently amused by her antics for some reason as she and the other human settled down onto a pair of chairs as well.

Rys waited for a moment before he opened his mouth to speak. "Not that I'm not grateful for letting us into your home, but are you sure its okay? It seems kind of...old."

Instead of being offended, the old human just laughed some more, her voice getting hoarser as she went. "No, no! It's fine. Being surrounded by people is always a delight and letting a cursed old woman stay the night outside is just cruel. Of course, if you could help out with a few repairs before you leave in the morning, it'd be very much appreciated." she said with an innocent grin cleaving her wrinkled face in two and Rys had to resist the urge shiver at the unsound picture she made. He had had no idea humans could look so weird.

"I'll be happy too." he answered the old human with a polite smile half hidden by his cloak's hood.

The old human gave him a thankful smile in response and while they continued to talk about nonsense and other useless things, the younger human man left the room to make something to eat.

The rest of the evening passed relatively fast. They ate the food generously provided by the old and young humans and Rys did his best to pretend he actually liked it while Tif gorged on it like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Goblins tastes in food were really weird. Meanwhile, the old human regarded them with tales of its offspring's adventures and subsequent death at the hands of ogres.

The amount of pride she exhibited when she talked about how bravely he died, saving a pair of traveling villagers, was just downright morbid.

"You can sleep here." the old human said as she showed them a small room previously hidden by a door that resembled the rest of the wall to a ridiculous degree. She was bent almost in half where she leaned heavily on her cane while the human man hovered anxiously around her, clearly determined to catch her when she inevitably fell over.

Rys gratefully thanked her and gave her another polite smile, careful to keep his canines from showing. He pushed Tif in in front of him as he followed after her, careful to close the door after him. He had to push and shove it for a couple of minutes before it agreed to stay closed.

When it did, he stood back and shook his hands free of the dust and grime that had collected on them from handling the door and turned around to see where he was going to sleep.

There was only one bed.

Rys shuddered as he watched Tif climb up into the rather thin looking bed, another one of those twitches in his face as he realized he would have to sleep next to her, because there was no way he was going to sleep on the floor. It looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in weeks, it was so disturbing that he almost wanted to rather sleep on Hadyn. Not to mention the smell, a distinctly vomit inducing nightmare. He didn't understand how Tif could stand being in the room and just go straight to sleep.

He pulled off his cloak, as there was no cover, and carefully eased himself into the bed next to where Tif that had already started to snore.

He clenched his eyes shut where he laid with his back to Tif and almost had a heart attack when Tif's spindly arms forced itself around his waist. In his head, he counted to ten, then to twenty and then to a hundred as he did his best to fall asleep with a drooling snoring goblin fast determined to squeeze him to death in her sleep.

This was not how he wanted his night to go.

The next time Tif got ideas about sleeping indoors, he'd just leave her behind.

***

Rys woke up to the sound of a gnarling terrible sounding snore right next to his ear. His eyes were wide open in an instant as he tried to remember what had happened and why he'd been sleeping next to what sounded like a troll. It was only when the snoring creature started to mumble about killing things in its sleep that Rys remembered that he was sleeping next to Tif in the home of that old human and the younger one that called Tif crazy.

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes again, determined to go back to sleep if all that woke him up was Tif's nasty sleeping habits. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

The arms that had previously been around his waist had somehow migrated up to his neck and with a twitch, Tif, that laid curled around his head in some weird parody of a headband, started squeezing as she laughed derangedly about killing the monsters all while still peacefully sleeping.

Rys gasped desperately for breath as he was being strangled, wowing to himself that he was never sleeping next to Tif again and got a hold of her arms. He twisted and turned until he had managed to dislodge one of them and, with a regretful look, he bit the other one in front of his mouth. It tasted disgusting. He spat the arm out as soon as her grip slacked in pain and desperately spit out the mouthful of dirt he had gotten in his mouth. He turned around on the thin bed, shaking and pushing at Tif with his hands on her stomach and pushing her body against the headboard as he did his best to make her let go of his head.

When he finally succeeded, he sat back on his hunches and stared down at her where she was still sleeping peacefully and mumbling things to herself all the while snoring to high heavens, and found himself hating her with a fierceness he had never felt before and than a moment later it dissipated and he found himself just exhausted. He was starting to think that he hadn't told the humans a very far-fetched lie after all.

He took several gulps of deep breath as he got used to breathing again and dragged his hands through his hair in irritation. He let out an annoyed and borderline furious hiss when his hands got tangled up in the mess Tif had made his hair into. It was already hard to manage to an almost ridiculous degree, requiring daily brushes and sleeping with it braided just to keep it from going out of control and now Tif had undone all his hard work from the night before. He dragged in another annoyed deep breath and implored himself to stay calm. She was sleeping, she didn't know what she was doing. Right?

Right.

She obviously didn't.

Obviously.

A terrifying glare formed as Rys glared at Tif with murder in his eyes. The bloodlust he was exuding was enough to wake her up when all other things had failed.

Fortunately, she was saved from the imminent death-by-ally by the knock on the door that managed to somehow echo in the small room, bringing with it a relief that was bone-deep. Tif gratefully shot out of bed and out the door before Rys had a chance to kill her for the horrific crime she had done to his hair.

After breathing in and out for a few minutes and letting the calm return to his body to let go of any murderous feelings he might still possess, he rose from the bed and made his way out of the room. Rys let his gaze drift from place to place in this rundown shack as he saw it for the first time in daylight.

Somehow, it managed to look even worse.

The dark of the night had hidden the smaller problems, the small holes in the walls and the roof, the dust that he had only been able to smell the night before was suddenly annoyingly obvious and it was with a start that he realized none of the furniture or colors matched, it was a puzzle with pieces from different landscapes. He found himself frowning as he pulled the hood of the cloak over his head to hide his inhuman features in the sunlight. While he was starting to think the old human would have no problem with his ancestry, he didn't doubt the fact that the younger one would kill him in his sleep.

It was with an irritated grumble that he collected all his hair in the hood and resolved to deal with it later. For now, he was hungry and hopeful that the humans breakfast was better than their dinner.

He entered the dining room and made his way to the same chair he had sat in the night before, now looking much more dangerous. Nonetheless, he sat down and resolved that he would be polite, no matter how disgusting the food they served were. It was the least he could do for people that were stupid enough to believe that it really was a curse that were at fault for Tif's frankly speaking horrible looks.

Soon after he sat down, Tif came into the room, completely devoid of any disguise and with the old human following after her. Rys almost had the urge to face-palm at her lack of foresight, it seemed she was the kind of person that believed things would work itself out without any input from her. Honestly, he was starting to think it was a miracle she hadn't died in the Forest of Dorlan before she found him. He could already see it, her empty eyes staring up into nothingness as she laid tore piece from piece on the forest floor, scavengers surrounding her to start their meal without any gratitude. And in the distance, her Elder grandmother would only shake her head and marvel that it hadn't happened earlier.

"Oh, good morning! David should be coming with breakfast soon and I have to say, Tif really is a wonderful cook, she gave us so many good suggestions!" the old human spoke in a disturbingly chipper voice for someone so old. Rys shivered when he looked at her in the daylight, she only looked more wrinkled and old. The smell he had been unable to identify around her before he was now starting to think was that infamous old people smell that humans supposedly had when they reached a certain age according to his former friends.

He nodded as respectfully as he could to the human and said, "Good morning and thank you for providing us with more food, it's a lifesaver."

"Oh, it's nothing! But that help you promised us would do us a world of good. After breakfast, perhaps?" the human looked to innocent for an old human that was attempting to blackmail someone part elf into helping with repairs. Although, he had the sneaking suspicion that he would be doing them on his own, as if they weren't already fixed, and the old human clearly wanted them to be, it was most likely because no-one willing to help had the necessary skills.

Rys only nodded in response as the younger human, he thought its name started with a D or something, brought in the breakfast plates, wooden and clearly carved by hand as they were uneven and in different sizes.

He managed a polite smile to the human male as he started eating the food, glad to find that it was just bread and water, something that he was at least used to and could get down without having to smother the urge to vomit. Although the bread was dry and on the end of burnt, not to mention a few days old, it tasted alright and he found nothing wrong with it when he inspected it for mold. The water, at least, tasted fresh.

Once breakfast was eaten and he had asked for more as bread was probably going to be a rare occurrence in the future, Rys asked what they wanted him to repair.

The answer was pretty much everything.

While there were some things he could not fix due to lack of the right materials, like the windows, the humans just wanted him to fix everything he could. As long as he did his best, they said, they would consider the debt of them almost eating them out of house and home to be paid. They wouldn't even comment on Rys' need to wear a hood indoors.

As it was probably the best offer they were going to get, and they did owe them, Rys started on it immediately, hopeful that they would be able to leave as soon as possible.

He figured it was probably best to go from the ground up and started on the floor first. He patched up what he could and other parts of the floor he completely tore up and replaced when the hole was to big or the wood too rotten. In the end, it resembled an incorrect puzzle as much as the color scheme did so in a way, it did fit. Once he was finished with the floor, he moved on to the walls and while he was at it, rebuilt an entire new door and put oil on the hinges. There wasn't anything he could do for the windows, so he ignored them entirely.

Once night fell, the routine from the night before was repeated and Tif was made to sleep on what was an incredibly hazardous couch in order to spare himself the horror of waking up to finding himself being strangled. Thankfully, the humans believed him when he told them the reason why he refused to sleep with her on the same bed and even started keeping a little more distance between themselves and Tif.

When morning arrived once more, with the same breakfast, he continued where he left off and worked on the roof. After wrestling with it for several hours and banking on things he probably shouldn't have, his patience ran out and he decided to just replace the whole damn thing. He managed to finish a few hours after nightfall, the light from the moon helping him work in the darkness, and then had dinner and went to sleep.

The next morning, they left the village and humans behind to continue on.


	7. Chapter 7

Hadyn was waiting for them on the edge of the village.

The sight of him snacking on a deer, blood on his snout and with eyes that practically spew fire, was enough to almost give Rys a heart attack. As it was, he just jumped nearly a meter in the air and scowled at everything around him.

It didn't make him feel any better.

Tif gave a sound that sounded suspiciously like a laugh next to him and he scowled furiously down at her before he schooled his features into the elven equivalent of an ice block and trudged on ahead of them. Hadyn let out a small growl and hurried after him, practically stalking him at his heels as Tif scurried after them with more breathless sounds of giggles coming from her periodically.

He found himself doing his best to ignore them both and instead followed along the path they were walking, determined to get as far away from the village and the weird humans that inhabited it as possible. While Rys didn't have anything against humans — he'd always been kind of indifferent from them, mostly because he had the disturbing thought that if it came down to it, he would eat a human to avoid starvation as he had no desire to die — he had also not been aware that humans were so strange.

They had survival instincts that worked perfectly fine, yet they ignored them as if they couldn't feel it. During his time in the village the humans had gone out of their way to leave him alone, seemingly without noticing, yet when their curiosity overwhelmed them they had gotten closer to him in order to observe him. It made no sense.

Honestly, if this was how the entire human race was it was a miracle they weren't extinct.

"So," Rys started after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence only disturbed by Tif's weird giggling, "where exactly are we going?"

Tif ran forwards until she was walking next to him, slowed down slightly by having to run around Hadyn that she was apparently still scared of. "North-east! We're going to the capital of Loria! It's a human nation so doubtlessly they'll be talking about what the Council are going to do about the evil presence. Not to mention that the elves will obviously get themselves involved somehow and there's a chance we'll be able to listen in on their plans there."

"Obviously." Rys muttered under his breath. He startled slightly when he was nudged in his side by Hadyn and when he looked back at him, he was looking up at him with wide eyes that somehow managed to look worried. For some reason, he felt the need to reassure the wolf. "Don't worry Hadyn, I'm fine. It's just...I'm not sure how the elves will react to me if they see me."

He looked off into the distance as he wondered if the elves would just kill him if they saw him. As he had done nothing for the elves and had no intention too, it was the only response he could imagine they would take.

Next to him Hadyn let out a growl, vicious sounding enough that Rys shivered in terror for a second before he remembered that Hadyn wouldn't kill him. He would probably torture him though...but no, Rys preferred to think that Hadyn liked him for some reason and wouldn't intentionally hurt him. As stupid as it probably made him sound to think that a wild wolf would like someone like him, that was what he hoped. Silently of course, he would have got be an absolute idiot to say anything like it aloud. And Rys may be a lot of things, but a fool was not one of them.

Rys shook his head to get rid of his errant thoughts and instead concentrated on walking. They'd set a brisk pace, as it was several days journey by walking to the next village. Doubtlessly, if they'd had something to ride on, they might have made it in only two or three days but as it was it would take almost an entire week for them to get there. There was a clear path to follow though, not an imagined one that only Tif knew of and there were prepared camps set up by travelers for travelers. Rys didn't think that the people that had originally made the camps meant for them to become public domain, rather someone had probably found them while they were still in good enough condition that reviving them wasn't hard and things had taken off from there. Now there was clear dots on the map they got from the old human that marked where a camp was located.

He was quite sure people often got robbed in these camps.

Hopefully, Hadyn would stay close to them and scare away potential bandits. And just thinking of wanting Hadyn, the frightening terror inducing large (mystical) wolf, to be close was enough to get him shuddering in fear. The thought that he'd changed that much in just a matter of a few weeks was terrifying in an entirely different but nonetheless frightening way.

Rys found himself resolutely ignoring the thoughts going through his head and instead let the mindless chatter Tif was spewing distract him. It worked surprisingly well.

While listening to a delighted Tif rant — her happiness that he was actually listening to her was obvious — and occasionally glancing at Hadyn to make sure he hadn't suddenly gone homicidal and gotten the urge to eat them, time passed by fast. Before he knew it, it was nightfall and they had gotten to the first camp on the map.

Rys stared around at the site for a few moments before he turned to Hadyn who had dutifully stopped when he did. Honestly, it just scary all over again.

"Hadyn could you stop anyone other than me and Tif from entering the camp while we're here?" he felt silly asking that of a wolf, but he had no better idea to keep away people that would want to steal from or kill them and while the idea of a wolf not only understanding but actually listening was nothing but a pipe dream, an half-elf could always hope.

Hadyn let out a fierce growl, his eyes glowing from within and Rys almost found himself fainting when the wolf appeared to nod. It then turned around before he could comment on it and walked to the end of the camp where it promptly sat down and stared with hard and ferocious eyes out into the darkness of the night. The camp was a few minutes away from the path, half-hidden in the woods and Rys realized that despite the impossibly of it and his inherit terror of anything that could eat him, he felt safer knowing that Hadyn would be keeping watch. If nothing else, his growling if anything happened would wake him up, giving them the chance to run away.

The sound of crackling fire made him turn away from the sight of Hadyn and instead his eyes fell upon the fire pit Tif had gotten started. He made his way to her and once he'd torn the cloak off and let it fell on the ground a decent distance from the fire, he sat down on it.

"How long until where at the capital?" Rys voiced in the silence when it got to oppressing.

Tif hummed and answered, "At this pace? About a month probably."

"The capitol is Azura, right?" he asked in response.

She hummed in confirmation. "Correct. If we stop by the next human village, we'll add about a day to our travel time, but it'll give us a chance to find out if anything important has happened while we're traveling. If any news about the spirits has spread. We might even find a horse to buy, then we'll cut down our travel time significantly."

Rys nodded and let the silence cover them again when it was clear Tif didn't intend to say anything more. He supposed that she had used up all her speaking quota for the day or something. Or maybe she was just getting tired.

As they had already eaten earlier in the day when Hadyn had run off and came back with the corpses of several rabbits, when it got to the point that the only light in the clearing came from the fire pit, Rys laid down on his cloak and relaxed. Tif was on the other side of the fire so there was no chance he would be strangled by her in his sleep. His drifted from side to side until he closed them and with a breath of relief, he was asleep in moments.

***

That night passed uneventfully.

The next night, when they were settling down for sleep, a band of bandits made their way to their camp and then promptly left when Hadyn almost killed two of them.

And so the days passed.

On the sixth day of their travel, they finally reached the human village Tif had spoken about. The village was slightly larger and better looking than the one they had stayed in before, the people seeming both happier and cleaner. Like before, Rys asked Hadyn to stay out of the sight of humans and once they had both covered up everything nonhuman, he and Tif made their way into the village.

They walked at a leisurely pace, as the sun was still not quite ready to set, and made their way passed the guards that stared at everyone that passed them just outside of the village. Rys was slightly horrified to note that while one guard had a bow and arrows, the other one had a perfectly usable sword and determined that their best bet of survival was to stay as far as possible away from them as they could get. He had no doubt they get killed in a heartbeat if they were found out.

As they neared the village, they could hear the humans talking and laughing, evidently having a much better standard for life than the last village they'd been in.

They made their way passed small wooden houses and shacks, following the path into the center of the village. The distance between the buildings got more and more narrow the further into the village they went, the beaten down path between them were filled with people dressed in cheap clothes in muted colors going one way or another. After several twists and turns, they reached a large two story wooden building painted a faded red nestled between two smaller houses. Above the door was a sign saying, 'Belladonna's Inn'.

Tif let out an impressed sigh and hurried forwards, seemingly determined to get there as fast as possible. Rys breathed in deeply before he gathered his courage and followed after her. It was his first time visiting an inn and although Tif had money, he didn't know what the proper way things were to be done. Not to mention, if they wanted food, would they have to pay extra? He had the feeling that they'd be broke by the time they reached the capital if that were the case.

When he reached the door which Tif was struggling to open all the way until she gave up and sneaked int through the gap she managed to make, Rys pushed it ope the rest of the way and found himself relaxing when he felt the warmth wash over him. It was getting colder every day and although he was usually fine, as the cloak he had was quite warm and he had more resistance to the weather than an ordinary elf, it wouldn't be long until snow started falling on the ground. Especially as they were making their way north.

The hall they entered was low in ceiling with candles hanging from it. The round tables with two or three chairs each were scattered throughout the room, each with a lit candle of their and here and there, a few humans sat on them. The walls were covered in the same faded red paint as the outside and at the farthest reach of the room was a bar behind which a human stood, looking about as bored as someone could.

They went past the tables and chairs until they reached the bar, Tif excitedly looking around with big sparkling eyes, seemingly fascinated by everything around her. Rys had to keep in the laugh that wanted to bubble out of his throat at the image she made, as he had the persistent feeling she'd stab him with something sharp and deadly if she thought he was laughing at her. Which he absolutely was. Not that he'd ever let her know that, he'd learned his lesson the last time he had.

When they reached the bar, Rys cleared his throat and gave a soft cough in order to gain the human's attention. When the human's bored eyes met his (or rather, met his hood) Rys continued on speaking in a soft clear voice, devoid of any particular feelings.

"We'd like a room please, with separate beds."

The human gave him a silent stare for a few moments before he opened his mouth and answered, "Two gold coins. Six silvers added if you want dinner included. Another three if you want breakfast tomorrow morning."

Rys nodded and looked down when Tif pulled on his pants. When he reached his hand down in order to get her to stop, she dumped a leather pouch in his hand instead. When he pulled it up to his line of sight and opened it, he saw that it was filled with coins. Gathering up two gold and nine silver ones weren't that difficult, though he had to dig a little, and he put them down on the bar counter.

The human grabbed a key from his belt, dropped it on the counter and said, in a completely disinterested voice, "Room 4, it's on the second floor. Dinner's in an hour and breakfast at seven tomorrow. If you miss it, you miss it."

Rys nodded and smiled gratefully at the human before turning around and making his way towards the wooden stairway in the far corner of the room, hidden in darkness. Tif hurried after him with nary a word.

The room, as stated, was on the second floor in the corner and had two beds. There was one dirty window facing the streets outside and nestled in was a table that looked just as filthy. The floor was covered in a rug of unknowable origins with its color torn off and from the ceiling hanged a lonely lamp with no cover. When he flicked the switch next to the door, it flickered to life with a quiet hum before it promptly lost the light as it went dark again. He wondered how a tiny village such as this one had the luxury known as electricity, before deciding it wasn't any of his business and it wasn't like it was working correctly anyway. That much was easy to see.

Tif ran into the bathroom and tore off her clothes on the way there. Once she was there, she threw herself into the tiny bath in the equally as small bathroom. She excitedly started turning the knobs and when water flowed out of the mouth on the wall, she made loud sounds of awe as she stared at it, completely enthralled.

Rys grabbed the clothes and threw them in after her before dragging the thin door closed and praying to whatever god existed to erase the horrific image of Tif named from his mind. It was nothing but pure torture.

Once Tif stumbled out of the bathroom, a full half-hour after she went in and with a look of pure ecstasy on her quite honestly horrifying face, Rys entered and closed the door behind him.

The bathroom was small and the bath even smaller, with dirt and other unmentionable things so ingrained into it, the original color was impossible to see. He had a feeling it was supposed to be white, or the filth wouldn't be so eye-catching. Rys put the uncleanliness of it out of his mind, filled the bath with half-cold water thanks to Tif's long bath and once he was devoid of all his clothes, emerged himself into it. He closed his eyes in pleasure and leaned his head back on the wall, allowing himself to really relax for the first time since he was banished by the elves.

It was heaven.

When he lived in Light Valley, bathing with warm water was something he took for granted, one of those things he would always be able to do. He didn't realize how much it meant to him until he no longer could.

Once he'd soaked for a few minutes and let the warmth that was left seep into his bones, he grabbed the small piece of grey soap and scrubbed himself clean. He drained the tub when he was finished with it and filled it up again, this time with notably colder water and grabbed the small jar of cream, with the words "For cleaning hair" on it. He unscrewed the lid with his wet hands and cursed when he almost dropped it in the bath. When he finally managed to get it open, he grabbed as much as he could and viciously scrubbed it into his hair. Lately, it had gotten darker from all the filth and dirt it was accumulating and he was worried it'd eventually look black from the lack of care he was giving it. The lumps and knots that had started to form were especially annoying.

Rys lathered his hair with the hair specific soap and did his best to get it as clean as possible. He found that just cleaning it once was not enough and first on the third cleaning, in the middle of which he was forced to change the water in the tub to keep it from getting it too dirty, did it start to resemble the ash pale hair he was used to.

He left the bath both satisfied and freezing, as the water had only gotten colder the longer he stayed in it and with every time he changed it. It wasn't necessarily to the point where it got uncomfortable, as orcs were very impervious to the cold, but rather that the occasional shivering he involuntary made was irritating. He dried himself off and then put on his clothes, the pants and simple shirt before he made his way out the door. In the bedroom, Tif appeared to be sleeping on the floor, somehow enjoying the feeling of the carpet. Rys slid his gaze away from her and wondered if the torture of watching her have a good time was ever going to end.

"Come, wake up. We're going to miss dinner." he lightly kicked her back in his attempts to wake her up, completely unconcerned if it'd hurt her.

Tif blinked her large eyes and stared up at him for a few moments before she yawned and asked, in a drowsy voice, "Why did you kick me? I was having a really pleasant dream."

Rys just turned around and opened the door, just before he left he flatly responded, "I'm going to eat dinner, either come with me or not."

Tif blinked incomprehensible at him as he left the room, leaving the door open behind him. With a yell, she finally jumped up from the floor and chased after Rys when she could no longer see him, absentmindedly pulling the door closed behind her. Rys smiled to himself in satisfaction as he heard her hurry after him and made his way down the stairs to the entry room on the bottom floor.

The table they sat at was in considerably better condition than the one at the home of those strange humans they last stayed with, but there's still no denying that its old and well used, most probably having been worn down over the course of several decades. Everything in this village seems to be.

Soon after they sat down, a young human girl probably still in her teens, hurried towards them and stated. "You can choose between warm soup with bread or rice and sauce. Cold water will be provided regardless."

Rys didn't give Tif the chance the answer, as her voice had an undoubtedly inhuman twist to it that could easily give away their nonhuman natures if people listened too closely and said, "We'll both take rice with sauce please."

The woman nodded and walked back to the bar. Rys didn't bother to follow her with his eyes, instead he looked around the room, as he had had other things on his mind the last time he was here. But as he watched the walls and ceilings, the torches lining them and the old faded paintings that hung on them, he found that his opinion of the place he currently was at only lowered. The more he concentrated, the more faded the paint seemed, the more oddly placed the torches were, as if though there was originally something else there that produced lighter as now the torches were only barely enough to produce adequate light to cover the whole area of the room and there were hooks on the ceilings that were no longer being used. The floor had probably been beautiful once upon a time, but now it was full of scratch marks, small holes and scorch marks.

Once upon a time, the inn had probably been a sight to see, but now it held a gloomy and depressed atmosphere. It spoke of things long since passed, of dreams unattained and lost.

It spoke of sadness never escaped.

While his mind wandered, the waitress came back with two plates of rice. She set them down in front of them and gave a quick smile before she went back to the bar and returned with two tall glasses of water in her hands. While she set down Tif's in front of her, Rys stretched out his hand to receive it directly, finding that he was thirstier than he thought. Before she could leave again, he found his courage to speak and said:

"The electrical lamp in our room worked for a few seconds. I don't mean to be rude, but this is a small village, how do you have a luxury such as electricity?"

The girl looked uncomfortable and glanced around her before answering. "About seven decades ago, before my mother was born, this was a rich mining town. It was much bigger then and a lot of factories were built here. But in the end, the mines dried up, we lost the majority of our income and people left in droves. The factories were closed down when the workers left and moved to better locations. All that was left was this small village. This inn used to be very popular back in the day so it still has working electricity, but the only other building in the village to do so is the Town Hall. And even then, the electricity is... iffy at best. In another few years, I think we'll lose even that."

"Ah, I'm sorry for asking." Rys offered in a tilted tone, unsure how to proceed when she sounded genuinely upset.

She scoffed. "It's nothing to be sorry for, I wouldn't know anything else. Still, which each year less and less soldiers come out here to help drive out the monsters when they come from the Forest of Dorlan."

Rys startled at that and he asked, "Monsters come from Dorlan?"

"Yes, when the winter is the coldest and the days the shortest, the monsters goes as far out of the Forest as they can get. They kill anyone they come upon. And as the years pass, they increase more and more in numbers. Many villages and towns get attacked very year as they read out and naturally, the soldiers go where the most people and the best supplies are." she told him, gave him a vain smile and returned to work.

Rys gazed after her for a while, before he returned his attention to the food sitting on the table. He put the conversation out of his mind and concentrated on eating his first real meals in weeks. The food provided by the last humans they stayed with could barely be considered acceptable. The thought occurred that the monsters that came might be the reason for their lack of resources, if they had to give it to the soldiers for them to preserve their strength fighting, but he soon lost it as he ate.

While the food was nowhere near close to the standards of the elves of Light Valley, it was still filling and warm and had a pleasant taste. Rys noted that even Tif appeared pleased by it. And like the waitress had said, the water was cold and Rys found himself feeling nostalgic. The elves of Light Valley may have never accepted him, but his mother had been a light in the dark for him. She had never showed him anything but loved and had accepted all his quirks, even if she had made him hide many of them. And he had loved the food she made. She had had no qualms about cooking meat for him and carefully answer all his questions about anything he could think of. He had been a very inquisitive child.

The waitress came back when their plates were empty. Before she could grab them, Rys asked, "Would it be possible to get more, I'm still hungry?"

"Only one more portion." she responded.

He gave Tif a glance, but she shook her head in answer to his unasked question. "Then I'd like one more, thank you."

***

Morning arrived and with it, a well-rested Rys.

There was no Tif kicking him awake and attacking him in her sleep, no Hadyn standing right next to him staring at him and scaring him half-to-death and no fear that they'd get killed in their sleep by robbers and bandits. For once in weeks, he had what could be called a peaceful sleep. While he couldn't remember what he dreamed of, he was sure it was a happy one.

Rys blinked his dark eyes open and squinted at the light that was shining in through the window. He turned around and laid on his back, staring silently at the ceiling and contemplating his life choices. The truth was, he had no idea where the capitol city of Loria, Azura, was located, nor did he know the way there. In regards the location of Light Valley, he had a pretty good idea of where he was from studying old maps, but those maps were so old that they didn't reflect the human kingdom as it now was. If he somehow got separated from Tif, he would be royally screwed.

After several minutes of lazing about on the bed, grateful to have one even if it was stiff and lumpy, and watching the shadows in the room change shape as the sun rose higher and higher, Rys sat up and pushed the covers off his body. He dragged his hands through his hair in a vain attempt to brush it, knowing full well it was a poor replacement for a comb, and twisted it into a braid, tying it off with a dark blue ribbon. He let his braided hair fall down his back and climbed out of the bed, pulling on his clothes as he made his way to the bathroom. He passed Tif sleeping soundly on the bed on the way but made no attempt to wake her.

Once he'd finished his business in the bathroom, he went back into the bedroom, amusingly watching as Tif twisted and turned and only managed to entangle herself deeper on the bed. It made a amusing picture, her laying on the bed upside down with her feet by the pillow, completely trapped in the covers and desperately trying to break free, only furthering her own dilemma.

When Tif saw him standing at the foot of her bed, her coarse voice broke the peacefulness of the quiet morning to pieces. "What are you doing, just standing there? Help me!" she demanded.

Rys felt a smile spread across his face, showing his canines to the world, and couldn't resist laughing at her. "You were the inciting that were going to sleep with the covers. I warned you that you move a lot when you sleep, you only have yourself to blame. If you want me to help you, you have to ask for it."

Tif swore at him and scowled furiously. "Fine," she hissed out, "I am asking you to help me."

Rys raised a pale eyebrow. "That's not asking."

"Idiot! Fine! Okay! Help me! Are you happy now?!" Tif growled out, so angry her face was gradually becoming more and more purple.

Rys couldn't resist laughing at her again, but nonetheless stepped up to the edge of the bed and started work on unraveling the mess she had made. After several minutes of the embarrassing experience, he managed to get Tif out unharmed, if furious. Rys turned around and burst out laughing, his whole body shaking as the picture of a rumpled Tif with pieces of the bedcover still stuck on her horns and a truly frightening expression on her face made him lose control due to the hilarity of the situation. It was first when he started calming down that he realized it was the first time he had laughed unreservedly like that for years.

As they went down the stairs for breakfast, fully dressed and ready to set out as soon as they were finished with it, Rys found himself occasionally letting out a quiet chuckle at the image still in his mind. Every time, Tif would get a look on her face that promised nothing but murder, but even that couldn't stop his mind from wandering and his body from reacting to it. It was honestly the happiest he had been for years. Even in Light valley, he hadn't been truly happy for a long time, not since he realized why he was traded so differently and his mother told him the cold hard truth. While his mother had never hidden how the came to be or what he was, she had sugarcoated it and downplayed the importance of it. It took him years to emerge from his books enough to realize exactly how different his treatment was.

By then, well... there was nothing to be done.

After eating breakfast and saying goodbye to the manager of the inn, they went back outside. It was first when the left the warmth of the inn that Rys realized exactly how cold it had gotten. It was the middle of autumn now with winter fast approaching and the air reflected that. Even with his ease in dealing with the cold, the fact was that they were going north and he could already see a cloud escape his lips when he breathed out. Perhaps, in preparation in case it got worse than he could deal with, acquiring a thicker pair of pants would not go amiss.

So instead of immediately leaving the village, they made their way around on the dirty streets between the buildings until they found themselves in front of a clothes shop. When he asked Tif if she wanted to come with inside, she looked at him like he was crazy and very clearly conveyed her disgust of human stores to him. She waited outside.

Some time later he returned outside to find Tif sitting with her back to the brick wall of the small house the clothes shop was located in and sulking to herself, occasionally muttering about the stupidity of humans. In front of her laid a hat and in it were a few bronze coins.

She'd been mistaken for a homeless human.

Rys thought he showed admirable self-restraint when he didn't burst out laughing right then and there.

Tif looked up when she heard him come closer, the hood of the cloak she was wearing making her look like a extremely short, old human. She glared at him. "Are you finished? We should get the horse now, we'll save half the traveling time."

Rys nodded and they set off to find a place to buy a horse.

Nearly an hour later, after having travelled the entire village twice over, they finally managed to find a place willing to sell them a horse. With Tif's small stature, one would be enough.

After buying it and the accompanying equipment that cost more than he thought, taking almost half of their money, they set off on the journey again. They had to backtrack a bit to reach the road that would take them to Azura, past another human village and a small town, but that wasn't a problem. Once they were well out of the village sights, Hadyn reappeared next to the horse—which was already scared just from Rys' presence—nearly making it run off into the sunset. Thankfully, they managed to get a good rip on it and Hadyn was apparently familiar enough with horses to herd it back on the road without it catching on. While the horse never quite recovered from the ordeal, it didn't try to run off again.

Well, it didn't nearly succeed again.

The traveling was considerably faster with the horse. They covered twice the ground in a day it would have taken them if they had walked and while at the start Rys was sore in muscles that he wasn't aware he had, he soon got used to it. It was the first time Tif had ever been on a horse and she spent more time marveling at the speeds it could travel and trying to pet it than she did concentrating on their job. If Rys didn't know any better, he'd say she'd fallen in love.

It was disgusting.

As the days passed, the winds got colder and colder and frost could be seen decorating everything. They didn't stop riding the horse until it got far too dark for it to see in order to get as much time out of it as possible. While Rys' night vision wasn't quite up to par with pureblooded orcs, it was good enough for him to navigate in the darkness and distinguish tree from rock and so on. Tif's vision was even better, but he thought that was probably more due to the fact that she lived in an underground cave system rather than an inborn ability. Of course, this didn't change the fact that camouflage in the dark was much more effective than during the day even if you weren't particularly good at it and Rys had still not quite lost the fear that he was going to get killed during his sleep.

Hadyn had taken to sleeping right next to him, squirming as close as he could and while that once would have had him terrified to his bones, he had gotten used to it and found that he actually trusted the beast not to maul him to death.

It just showed how much he had changed since he met them.

It was kind of horrifying, if he thought about it.

 


	8. Chapter 8

They crossed a river to reach Azura.

It was a wide thing, with clear crystal-like water that sparkled in the sunlight. The place they crossed it wasn't terribly deep and they managed to get across on Rose's back, even if Rys' pants were completely soaked by the end of it. Surrounding it was a lush forest, looking almost like the polar opposite to the Forest of Dorlan. The light gleamed through the high treetops, but unlike the Forest, it wasn't dark in any meaning of the word. Rather, it felt welcoming in a way that Rys had long since learned to associate with magic.

Once passed the river, the road they were on became even more pronounced. It was well-traveled and used, the ground packed tight due to the frequent times it was traveled on. Sometimes, they passed humans, some walking and others riding horses like them. The closer they got to the capitol, the more people they saw. They even crossed paths with carts and carriages.

The arrival of winter grew closer every single day, the sunset earlier every time it fell. The air became colder at the same time as it grew lighter, a freshness to it that Rys had always associated with recent rain.

Eventually, they reached the capitol city of Loria, Azura.

It was a magnificent sight.

The city alone trumped the magnitude of every other village or town they had passed on the way there, with high sparkling towers reaching far into the sky visible even from a great distance. Surrounding the giant city was a high white wall with guards that patrolled it regularly. On the last few kilometers to the city, the forest that had surrounded them thus far was replaced by farmlands and meadows.

Peacefulness surrounded it and Rys had the feeling Azura very rarely knew the terror of demons and monsters.

The approached the iron gate on the south side, Hadyn having stopped following them in the forest when they reached the road and Rys could still feel his predatory gaze somewhere on the back of his head. He and Tif rode on Rose up to the guards next to the massive gate, with more people behind them similarity waiting to be let in.

It was an open secret, that elves had a stronger inclination for magic. It wasn't that they were automatically better at it, or that they were more suited for it. It wasn't even that they understood it in a way other species didn't, no it was that they were connected with it. They were born from the earth and to the earth they would return and their connection to nature went deeper than the other races. This, of course, didn't mean anything without dedicated practice as magic was an unpredictable art that could never be truly known or understood and trying to control it was an exercise in suicide.

And Rys was no different than any other elf when it came to magic. He had the affinity, but without the practice it was useless.

But unlike others, Rys had grown up as a halfbreed orc in a place dominated by elves, all of them fair skinned, light haired and unapologetically arrogant.

So yes, he had picked up a few tricks.

What he did to the guards for them to let them through without any trouble couldn't be classified as true magic. It was, at its best, a bastardized version invented by a child. And that was exactly what it was.

When Rys was young, before he had come to accept the fact that he couldn't change his nature, as much as he could hide it and disguise it to something gentler and easier to bear, he had played around with his innate magic. It was useless tricks that didn't have any meaning, as part of his punishment for being a halfbreed (though it was never phrased like that) was that he wasn't allowed to pursue an interest in the magical arts. This was why he had been exiled from Light Valley in the first place—though he didn't doubt they would have just found another excuse—because he had never been taught that it was forbidden. This meant that the magic he had taught himself, however useless or plainly ridiculous it had been, might not exactly fall into the elves definition of light magic.

The magic he used to get them past the guards wasn't a glamour nor was it any kind of disguise, Rys didn't have the knowledge necessary for something so refined.

Rather it was a mirror reflection of what the guards expected to see.

It didn't require much skill nor pure power, a simple tendril of magical energy into the guards' minds to trick them into thinking that was what in front of them was exactly what they expected. A pair of travel weary humans so utterly normal they were of no interest at all.

It was an intrusion in the minds of others and utterly against all that elves preached and Rys had stopped using it to get around Light Valley when he was a child and his mother had made it clear that that sort of magic was completely forbidden to use. The fact that he had come up with the simple trick so young was a sign that was where his magic affinity lay, in the mind arts and had he been anyone other them himself, he may have been allowed to pursue his ability in it, but as he wasn't, that kind of thing would only make him miserable. Rys had never been very interested in magic anyway. What he knew were all simple tricks, the kind that humans performed in magic shows to entertain an audience, that he had come up with when he was but a child desperate to fit in.

Their entrance to Azura was quiet and without complications, with Hadyn far off in the forest sulking that he couldn't come with and a horse that was infinitely relieved to be amongst humans once again.

As soon as they entered the city, Tif was immediately lost to the glamour and pretty trinkets everywhere around them.

The city was loud, with humans milling around in tight clusters on the cobbled streets. The houses were a respectful distance from each other, allowing the sunlight to glow uninterrupted on the ground. As they got closer to the center of it, which in and of itself took almost an hour due to how tightly packed some of the streets were with people and animals alike, the standards of the humans got higher as well. The clothes were simply of better quality and the people looked altogether healthier. Children ran around on the streets with parents desperately chasing after them and as they passed them by, Rys eventually had to get down from Rose in order to lead the horse through the tight spaces between the many humans, carts and stalls.

It was, all together, an organized mess that both made his head hurt and his heart pound.

It was the first time he had seen so many people in one place.

It was both exciting and terrifying at once. He just couldn't get rid of the persistent fear that they were going to be found out and summarily executed.

It had been such a long time since he had used his meager amount of magic to do something productive and there was no way he would be able to trick an entire crowd of people into thinking they were anything close to resembling humans. If it came down to that, they would be irrevocably screwed.

Rys led the horse and Tif until they got to a side street that was less crowded. Once there, he stopped walking and turned around to face Tif, almost face to face thanks to the extra height Rose gave her. He made sure both their cloaks were still fastened as it would be a downright disaster if they lost them now and once he had managed to get Tif's attention away from the sparkling jewels she was eyeing, he opened his mouth and asked:

"So now that we're here, what are we supposed to do?"

Tif gave him a look that loudly conveyed her annoyance and answered, "We'll walk around and buy something if we like it as we get closer to the center of the city. At the center there's the Hall of Remembrance, that's where the different representatives will gather. Once there we can listen in on their plans and then report back to the Elders. If necessary, we'll take counter measures."

Rys let out a sigh in response. "I know that, I'm not stupid no matter what you may think. What I meant was, how long are we supposed to be here and what are we to do while we wait. We don't exactly have endless funds."

"Oh." Tif glanced at him with wide eyes, evidently not having considered the problem of money before. Rys wasn't surprised, if you lived in a cave you couldn't be expected to know the monetary value of coins and how fast they could be gone. They should have enough for a few nights at a decent inn and to buy some more provisions as he was getting sick of hunting their food together with something pretty to remember their visit, but if they splurged without concern the way Tif had been ready to, they would have had to leave the city by morning due to losing all of their money.

After a few moments, she cleared her throat and said, "Well, I suppose you have proven yourself adequate at handling our money. I will leave it up to you then."

Rys rose an eyebrow at the words she used, amused by the clear way she was trying to save face. "Adequate, eh? Well, if that's the case, let's continue our adventure through the famed city of Azura, legendary for its many merchants."

He grabbed on to the reins of Rose again and led them back onto the main streets, amongst the bustling activities and everything. This city seemed to always be moving, the people hurrying this way and that and it was so far from what he was used to (because if there were one thing elves had in excess, it was time) that Rys was a little scared that he would get hopelessly lost.

They made their way through the mess of bodies, this time much slower and paying attention to the many stalls they passed at the side of the streets. Rys had fun looking around and taking his time as he had never seen so many wares in one place before. Even the yearly gathering of elves in Light Valley where they sold their creations and inventions wasn't nearly as big and diverse as elves had a tendency to stick to what they knew.

Rys smiled when he saw a wooden stall separated from the others with many different metals on it. He led Rose there and let the reins go in order to get a closer look. While he wasn't interested in the different weapons—knives and swords and even a few spears—the jewelry was fascinating. Rys had never really been interested in jewelry before, even when they were the most beautiful. He was familiar with the process to make it as he had dabbled a little in it in his younger days before he had settled on being a weapons smith though. His dark eyes traveled over the different products and inspected them as he tried to evaluate them. Eventually, his eyes settled on a silver necklace half hidden at the bottom of the pile of things, as the stall was very clearly overflowing with things to sell.

It was a thin silver chain, with many small chains connected and when he pulled it into the light he saw the three small rubies hanging on it. The two on the outer edges were oval in shape and laying to the side with the one in the middle being both bigger in size and rounder in shape. All of them had the innate glow associated with the Lost Islands.

The Lost Islands were a myth of elf origin that was several thousands of years old. When they had left their old land to come to the Meira continent, naturally it hadn't been a peaceful or easy trip. It had taken several years of dedicated traveling and many of the explorers had been lost at sea and strange and hostile islands. One of the places where they had lost the most of their people had been the Lost Islands, named as such for the magic that made sure everyone that entered them eventually became lost. It was remnants of an ancient civilizations warding that turned every sense you had inside out. Everything changed and inverted and nothing could be trusted.

Still, the abundance of precious metals and gems meant that they had stayed for years in order to get as many with them as they could before the casualty count had risen to the point where the just couldn't afford to stay any longer. However, to their great disappointment, aside from being extraordinarily pretty, the gems and metals held no special properties off the islands at all.

Over the many thousands of years since then, they had been lost and found and lost again, the gems reused again and again in accessories and other useless trinkets and the fact was that they weren't nearly as rare or valuable as people generally thought them to be. Sure, most people had never seen them before, but that was more to do with the fact that most simply didn't know what they actually looked like, the story having been quite exaggerated in non-elven societies, and as such they generally mistook them as something else and as a result overlooked them.

But the stones were certainly pretty.

Rys looked up from the necklace to the woman behind the stall, a tall gangly human dressed in thick fabric to ward off the cold of the coming winter. "How much for this?"

The woman tilted her head, making her red curls bounce around her brown face as she inspected what he was holding. "Depends on how badly you want it."

"If that's the case," Rys started, "then I'm afraid that I don't want it at all." he laid the necklace back down on the table and grabbed the reins of Rose again, fully prepared to leave without it. He wasn't about to try haggling for the price just because he thought it was pretty.

"Ah, wait!" the woman let out a large, theatrical sigh and said, "Three gold coins should be enough."

When Rys gave her an odd look at the price, she bristled and hissed out, "It's pure silver you fool. Now are you buying it or not?"

Rys rolled his eyes behind the hood but grabbed the pouch of money with his free hand and pulled out three gold coins, each about twice the size of his thumb though far less thick. "Here," he said, "now give me the necklace."

The woman nodded her head and took the money, depositing the necklace in his hand as a clear afterthought. "Thank you for your patronage, we hope you'll visit again." her tone was now, in contrast to before, overly polite and graceful. Even her dark black eyes twinkled at him, making him feel slightly uncomfortable. He nodded in response and twisted the necklace around his wrist until such a time that they were safe enough that he could pull down the hood and put it on properly. As they made to leave, he saw out of the corner of his eyes as a significantly shorter woman, even shorter than him, with similar brown skin and red hair approach the woman behind the stall and started speaking with her rapidly with a worried look on her face.

Well, it wasn't any of his business.

***

They reached the center of the city around midday.

It was progressively livelier there, something he hadn't even thought possible, and everything was in even better condition, the people dressed in fancy dresses and suits. These people all had standing, whether in the city or outside of it, that much was obvious to see. And Rys and Tif, in their worn clothes clearly meant for comfort over fashion, didn't exactly fit in.

Not that he particularly cared about it.

They weren't the only people walking the streets dressed in poor quality clothes, there were many humans staring through the windows with longing looks, clearly wishing that they only had the money to buy something. As long as they made sure to glance at all the fancy things extra-long, they managed to fit right in with the less... wealthy members of the city. It wasn't difficult at all.

The Hall of Remembrance was a large building in the center of Azura, passed winding roads and climbing streets built to honor the sacrifices of the last Great War. It was built using a combination of elven magic and dwarven ingenuity and so even after almost twelve hundred years, it was still standing, just as majestic as when it was first completed. It was surrounded by a beautiful man-made garden covered by a thin layer of frost that just made it seem more otherworldly. Every year, thousands of people traveled to Azura solely to see the garden and marvel at the sheer amount of history in the building, which was made of white marble and high windows with colored glass.

This was where the Council of the Allied Races would convene and decide what to do about the spirits in the Forest of Dorlan.

Rys stared up at the impressive structure and felt as Tif jumped down from Rose at his side. The tiny goblin let out a sound signifying how impressed she was. After a few more seconds of staring, Rys tore his gaze away from the white building and looked down at Tif next to his leg. Her large eyes were wide open and the hood of the miniature cloak she was wearing had fallen down, leaving her horns, grey skin and grotesque scar for the world to see. Frowning, Rys bent down and grabbed a hold of her hood, wrestling it back over her head when she didn't react except to swat his hands away.

He stood up straight again when she was properly covered and let out a sigh. This really wasn't how he had expected their trip to go.

"So," he began, "how do we get in?"

Tif finally tore her eyes away from the scenery and gave him a creepy scowl in response. "How should I know?"

Rys let out a deep breath and attempted to keep himself calm. "You must have some idea. How did you plan on listening in without me?"

"I was just going to hang around until I heard something." Tif shrugged, apparently utterly unconcerned about her lack of proper planning. It gave Rys the urge to shake her and make her see sense. Honestly put, he couldn't see her idea of just hanging around working out in any meaning of the word. She'd only end up getting herself killed.

He shook his head and breathed in deeply. "I'll walk around the building, there must be another entrance somewhere. You can stay here with Rose and... hang around to see if you hear something."

Tif nodded and beamed at him, an expression that twisted her face into an object of immense horror. It was disturbing. "Yes! I'll do a great job and be promoted to Elder when we return to the goblin caves! You can have faith in me, I won't let you down."

"Ah... right." Rys glance away from the cheer Tif was exuding, uncomfortable with the amount of energy she was showing off.

Rys was a naturally lazy person, aside from things he enjoyed, he generally didn't put much effort into things. It was hard to do so when it was never acknowledged after all.

As the building was in the middle of the garden, Rys, after making sure Tif really was going to stay put together with Rose, entered it. They layer of frost from the approaching winter gave it an icy beauty that wasn't present during the summer and Rys spent a few moments just lost in the wonder of it. The sight was like nothing he had ever seen, though some places in Light Valley certainly came close. But he had a mission to accomplice, so he set aside his amazement and walked through it, along the paths laid out in it. To be able to freely (if hidden behind a long coat) walk through a sight such as this was like a dream. Something he had never even imagined since he'd been a child.

He looked over the flowers as he passed them, stared at the high trees with creeping vines and the bushes full of white roses. His eyes drifted from side to side in order to take it all in as he walked passed it. With every step he took, he came closer to the center of the garden, where the building rose high. Eventually, he reached it.

Rys walked along the white marble wall, staring fascinated at the carvings on the outside that told the story of why it was built. It reminded him a little of the things he'd seen in the goblin caves, but only in the most superficial since. These were clearly made with more detail and had a certain flowing feeling to it that the carvings in the goblins caves had lacked. It was fascinating to see.

The windows were far too high up for him to climb through and he had the feeling they wouldn't be able to open anyway so Rys ignored them and instead looked for a lower one or a door.

After walking along the wall all the way to the back of the large building, Rys finally found what he was looking for. A door.

It was a wooden one, painted white to fit in with the surroundings. Both the metal handle and the lock had vines growing over it. He had the feeling it hadn't been opened for a long time. Which made sense, since the Hall of Remembrance was only ever used when the representatives of the Allied Races convened. Other times, it was only ever empty.

He just hoped no-one was close to the door.

Rys grabbed ahold of the edges of the door, planted his feet securely on the ground and took a deep breath before he pulled. With a loud groan and little resistance, the door pulled away from the frame. Within minutes, Rys held a heavy wooden door in his hands and shifted backwards carefully to place it down on the ground. He really hoped no-one had heard the sound of the door coming loose. Failing this close to succeeding would be a massive disappointment, even if he still wasn't comfortable with this whole adventuring business.

Once the door was safely on the cold ground, Rys hurried inside before someone came to check it out. With so many important people in the same place, it would be downright insane not to have guards. Many, many guards at that.

His steps were light, almost completely unable to be heard, a compliment to his elven heritage. The hallway he stepped into was visibly old, the wooden floors rotted and covered by dust. The walls were cramped and the he sneezed from the overwhelming amount of dust collected during what seemed to be decades. His nose kept itching even after. There was no light.

Rys picked up a branch of wood on the floor and a piece of cloth that had probably been something other than filthy as some point in time, wrapped it around the end of the branch and gently breathed it to life. The flame took hold with just a small spark and then spread over the rest of the cloth. Again, starting a fire wasn't anything difficult. All you needed to be able to do was create a single spark. Nature would take care of the rest.

With the light from the torch, it was much easier to see.

The only downside was the eerie shadows it created. Rys had to keep reminding himself that this was the prestigious, famous, Hall of Remembrance. There was no way its caretakers would allow for there to be monsters in it.

And wasn't that the joke of the century, an orc (albeit only half) afraid of monsters.

Rys felt like a disappointing parody of his species.

He snuck through the winding hallway, occasionally going up or down a few steps and passed twisting corners.

Eventually, he walked through enough doors and up enough stairs that it looked of better and better quality and he reached the marble parts of the structure.

He came out in a large room on a balcony above it, with a high dome like ceiling filled with painted images. Torches lined the wall and he walked forwards until he came to the railing and looked down. Immediately, he sucked in a deep breath to keep from screaming and ducked down behind it. There were people down there. People dressed in fancy clothing, with expensive jewelry and crowns decorated by absurdly large gemstones.

This was the Chamber.

The Chamber where the members would meet and discuss their reason for coming to the Hall of Remembrance. At the very least, he was in the right place.

And the punishment for sneaking into the Hall of Remembrance, especially when it was in use, was immediate death.

He'd just signed his death warrant.

Oh, dear lord, what had made him agree to this ridiculous plan? He was going to end up dead and his body torn to pieces by dogs and he wouldn't even get the decency of his body burned postmortem because he was a half-orc. They'd probably think he was a spy or something (which, granted, they weren't wrong about, just not for the orcs) and then his soul would be trapped in Limbo for all eternity. Which was about the worst fate one could suffer.

He kept his hand over his mouth and tried to keep from making any sounds. As horrible as things would be if he were discovered, that was only _if_ he was caught. People had a remarkable tendency to not look up, so if he just stayed quiet until they left, it should be fine. Probably. Hopefully.

Rys strained his ears and pulled down the hood of his cloak to hear better.

If he was already here, he should just get his mission over with while he tried to keep from panicking at his ridiculously lousy judgement.

He was starting to doubt his own sanity.

After a few moments of concentrating, he started to pick up on the chatter down below him.

"... are you serious?! Obviously, the dwarves are the superior race!"

The sound of something metal dragging on the floor. "Just because you can make tunnels in the ground and find metal, doesn't make you above us. You are barbarians who depend on physical strength. Elves, on the other hand, have both beauty and brains. What more do you need?"

"Oh, don't you mean vanity and condescension?"

"Take that back!"

"Ha, did I hit a sore point? You know that your society has stagnated. And when a society stagnates, it _dies_. If I were you, I would be deciding my funeral rhyme."

"You barbaric, ugly-"

"Okay, that's enough! We're not here to fight. Calm yourselves." A steady elderly voice called out. Rys found himself listening more intently to it.

A clattering sound, as if they had sat down and dropped their weapons. "Now," the same voice started. "let's all think about this. We were called here to decide how to deal with the evil presence in the Forest of Dorlan. Our sources indicate that it comes from deep inside it, maybe even as far as the Fortress of Moran. Obviously, this is a problem. If Moran possessed the ability to resurrect himself... it will spell chaos for the entire continent."

Deep silence followed the statement.

Then, "This is not news. We've always known something could arise there. A place that steeped in dark magic... it was only a matter of time. But Moran is dead. His soul is trapped in Limbo. He cannot resurrect himself. No, this must be something else."

The gruff voice of who he was pretty sure was a dwarf objected to the elf. "That's bullshit! Moran was the most powerful sorcerer in thousands of years. You think something like Limbo is able to stop him? That's foolishness!"

"None of that matters once you're in Limbo!" the elf yelled, their composure completely gone. "In Limbo, you are nothing! You have _nothing_. You do not even possess the capability of thought, much less magic."

"Oh, is that what your elven wisdom says?" the mocking tone in the dwarf's voice was clear.

A scoff came from the elf. "Like your dwarven brain can even comprehend it."

"You know, you elves think you're so fucking perfect, but you're just sad little immortals wallowing in your misery by lording your so-called knowledge over the rest of us!" Rys could imagine the sound of something snapping in the dwarf. They sounded furious.

"And what do you call your kind hiding in the dirt? Bravery? You're just afraid to confront the fact that your race is dying. You've fought in too many battles, with too many losses." the elf snapped back.

"Children!" the same steady voice as earlier snapped out. "Stop squabbling like little kids! We are here to find a solution to our problem, not... not air our grievances."

The elf responded with, "I think we already know our solution. We'll send the best of our people, together with a sorcerer, to find the problem and eliminate it. Problem solved."

"It's not that simple!" the dwarf loudly denied.

The elf scoffed. "Yes, it is. It is what we always do. Why we even needed to hold a meeting for this is beyond me."

"Then it is decided." The only voice not having argued with anyone began, "We will summon our Chosen and send them on this quest. The reward for the sorcerer agreeing to accompany them will be high."

"I still think you're making a mistake." The dwarf complained.

Rys sat still against the railing and held his breath as he heard them start moving about. Their voices jumbled together and by the time they left, the dwarf and elf was once again verbally fighting.

When the silence returned, Rys let out a deep breath and leaned back against the wall boneless. He pushed himself to his feet once he could stand again and looked over the railing, infinitely relieved that there was no-one there. Maybe he really should look into investing in a weapon that actually worked. Something easy that didn't require a lot of actual skill to use.

He stepped back from the railing and turned around.

And came face to face with an old grey-haired man.

His entire body switched and he felt his heart jump sharply in his chest at the sight of the man. _He'd been caught._ He was going to die.

It would be a slow, miserable death and he would end up getting caught in Limbo and feel suffering in all eternity. Next time Tif got any stupid ideas, he wasn't going along with them. Because he would be dead.

This was all nightmare inducing.

Rys kept his face even and cursed himself for taking off the hood. His non-human features were all in plain sight. There was no question about where this would go. Should he kill the human before they could report him? But there was a chance that he already had and then everyone would know that Rys had killed him. That would just result in a more severe punishment and he didn't like pain. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be as fast and painless as possible. Being a proven murderer wouldn't give him that. Rather, it'd result in the opposite.

A slow painful death.

Maybe even torture.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to speak.

"This, ah, this isn't what it looks like."

The man's stern face was covered in wrinkles. One of his eyes were white, like he was blind in it and his hair was a white grey mess that barely covered his head. He hunched his back where he stood and leaned heavily on a long-crocked staff covered in moss. Vines and roots climbed from his feet up all over his body, flower petals fell from colorful flowers that rotted just as fast as they grew and bloomed again. When he spoke, seeds fell from his lips.

His voice was low and broken when he stated, "Eleven... months."

Rys furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "What?"

The old man banged the staff on the marble floor once and blinked out of existence, like he was never there.

Rys was left staring at empty air, blinking his dark green eyes rapidly to try to figure out if the problem was with them. The man had just... vanished. Sure, there was magic that allowed for such things, but that required both great skill, innate talent and great power. It wasn't something every sorcerer could do. Further the more, the man had seemingly used it only to deliver a message, a very short one that didn't even make any sense and could have been sent on a note, which with magic would have been much easier. And the way the plant life clung to him (seemed to grow _from_ him) chances were he was a sorcerer with an earth affinity. Generally, earth sorcerers didn't have the ability to vanish from one place to another, as earth was solid and immoveable.

He took two hesitant steps forwards and held out his hand where the old man had just stood. There was a heaviness to the air and a smell that he associated with powerful magic. Magic, especially the more powerful kind, had a tendency to leave traces behind itself. Most people couldn't pick up on them, and so most sorcerers didn't bother to cover them unless they were doing something nefarious. But Rys was a half-elf, which granted him a higher affinity for it, and half-orc, which granted him a higher sensitivity to it. Orcs didn't have a lot going for them, but their magic sensing, though they weren't skilled at actually using it, was a thing to behold. It was part of the reason why the elves hadn't just put a bunch of magical traps on the battlefields, chances were higher that their own allies would fall for them then their enemies.

And that would just send the entirely wrong message.

Rys lowered his hand again and tugged his hood over his head. His hair had escaped its confinement a long time ago, but he had no time to fix it so it would just have to flow freely. Blinking his eyes to adjust to the darkness when he entered back into the winding hallways and twisted corridors, Rys lit up the makeshift torch again and considered the thought of _what happens now?_

 


	9. Chapter 9

Rys sneaked back out through the same door he had entered.

He contemplated the idea of trying to put the door back in its frame, but it was old enough that it would probably just fall apart if he moved it any more. Honestly, whoever took care of this historical site should really invest in a few new doors every now and then. Maybe then a halfbreed on a mission wouldn't get in as easily.

So, he left it where it had fallen when he first entered.

He hadn't been in the building for more than an hour and honestly, he was kind of disappointed that that was all there was to the meeting. He'd thought there would be more talking and polite conversations and information exchanged. Instead, they had decided to cut all that out and just go straight to solving the problem. And yes, that saved them time so it was probably a wise decision for them, but it was still not what he had expected and kind of ruined some of his childhood fantasies. When the Allied Races convened, it was supposed to be a regal impressive thing. Instead, the dwarf and elf had spent the entire meeting verbally fighting, despite the fact that they were supposed to be on the same side. It wasn't... how he'd imagined it.

Ever since he was banished, many things hadn't been how he imagined them.

Rys left the door as it was, laying on the hard ground and wandered back into the garden proper.

It was as he'd left it, though the sun was starting to set and it created a breathtaking picture. Rys was impressed and could admit to himself that he found it beautiful. He made his way through it, careful to keep away from the other visitors and his hood up. He exited it where he'd first entered it, not too far from where he had left Tif with Rose.

Thankfully, it seemed that she'd actually listened as she was still there, sitting on Rose.

Rys stalked over to her, still rattled by the old man that had practically breathed magic and let his eyes drift over her. He couldn't see any injuries and they were still where he left them, so he just hoped that meant she hadn't gone off to cause trouble. Honestly, he didn't know if all goblins were troublemakers, of if it was just something unique to Tif.

He really hoped it was just Tif.

When she saw him coming, she sat up straighter and asked, "So? What did you find out?"

Rys scowled and grumbled. "Nothing we didn't already know. They're sending some people on a quest into the forest and they're paying a sorcerer to come along in case anything need to be banished. Maybe we should just leave them to it..."

"NO!" Tif burst out, causing heads to turn in their direction. Rys growled at her and led Rose further into the shadows. "We can't leave them to it! Those spirits are strong. You said so yourself. What if they don't succeed and just piss them off? They're gonna tear our home to pieces just trying to kill those bastards that disturbed them."

Rys swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. "But they _are_ evil. How long will they be content to remain there alone? And the Council was worried that this presence was someone named Moran who had been resurrected."

"That's impossible. Moran is in Limbo, everybody knows that. You can never come back from there without outside interference and no-one's stupid enough to bring him back." Tif stated knowingly.

Rys looked around them suspiciously and dragged them even further into the dark alley they'd ended up in. "Okay, so who is this Moran?"

"Moran was an elf corrupted by his magic that went insane and started a war that lasted for thousands of years before he was finally killed." Tif deadpanned.

"Are you serious?" Rys asked, chocked and disbelieving.

She nodded. "Yes. It was not... a good time. For anyone. And it was a long time ago, just after the elves first came to this continent. I doubt they'd want anyone to know about it. It's the only elf ever to do so many despicable things, even by our standards."

"Ah... I see." Rys said. "Let's go and see if we can find a place to stay the night."

Tif lit up. "Ohhh, can I sleep with you?"

"No!" Rys snapped.

***

It took them nearly another hour to find an Inn that had room available and by then, the sun had set and the dark night sky was fully visible, with stars trailing patterns on it and telling forgotten stories.

They left Rose in the barn next to the Inn and entered it. The inside was well lit, with candles hanging from the ceiling and a lively atmosphere made all the livelier by all the people that were gathered in the large open room. They sat around tables and on chairs before the bar, the sound of humans speaking loudly, sharing stories and tales and jokes, giving the room an unexpected warmth.

It was a sight that couldn't be found in Light Valley.

Rys squeezed in between the cramped mess of tables and people with Tif keeping a tight hold on his cloak to avoid getting lost.

Behind the bar was a not old but not young woman keeping track of everything, the same one that had told them there was room when they entered briefly before making Rose comfortable in a proper barn. As they'd already paid for their room for the next few nights as well as received a key from her, they instead continued past the bar until they finally arrived at a vacant table. It was a high one with high chairs and was far back in the room, thankfully not in the middle of the chaos that was the rest of the area. Rys watched, with mirth shining in his eyes, as Tif literally climbed up on her seat.

There was just something about it that gave off the impression of a baby spider.

Soon after they sat down, a waiter came up to them.

It was a young boy, probably the son of the human woman behind the bar based on the similar facial structure. He asked, with a voice that had not yet matured, "What can I get you?"

Thankfully, in the dim lights of the various candles, Rys could pull his hood back just enough that his eyes were visible without worry. He smiled politely and answered, "Just a simple dinner for two and something warm to drink, thank you."

The boy smiled back and let out a chipper "Okay!"

As the boy left to convey the order to whoever did the cooking, Rys let his gaze wander again. It wasn't that elves didn't have this kind of atmosphere, lively and warm, something that gave off a pleasant sensation and filled one with nostalgia, it was that they were confined to special occasions. Celebrations and holidays such as the equinox and the anniversary of the date they first stepped foot on this continent. When someone of important status' birthday was approaching another century or millennia mark.

And it wasn't that Rys was absolutely forbidden from participating, celebrating the equinox was an honor to the gods, something everyone had to do, but he was never really a part of it. They ignored him, didn't shut him out of the celebrations but rather pretended that he wasn't there at all. He could celebrate yes, but always alone and away in some forgotten corner.

Just remembering it was depressing.

Rys smiled when the boy came back with their food and ate it gratefully. It was always a treat to have freshly cooked food, a luxury he hadn't been aware was so hard to find before his exile. Rys had never starved in his life before his banishment, his mother might be embarrassed of him, but she did love him and she had never done anything to deliberate hurt him. Even his stepfather had tolerated his presence in their family, ate together at the same table as him and tried to improve his life. Rys was honestly grateful that his family hadn't just thrown him out as soon as he was grown. It would have made them better received by the rest of the elves.

There was a lot of things he was grateful for.

After eating their fill and enjoying the food, he and Tif made their way to the room they had paid a few nights for to get some well-deserved rest. They had spent weeks on the road, traveling form village to village and Rys had never done such a thing before in his life. The things he had learned about humans, plants and animals in that time alone trumped everything he had learned for the centuries he had been in Light Valley. The knowledge he was gathering in droves almost made it worth the constant fear that Hadyn was going to realize Rys was prey and eat him in his sleep. Even after such a long time together, it was still only the blink of an eye compared to how long he'd been alive and he couldn't escape his fears quite that fast.

But the part that was perhaps more terrifying than that, was that he was getting there. Every time he saw Hadyn, he was a little less scared of him, a little less jittery and horrified by his mere presence. Hadyn was a wolf nearly the size of Rose, a horse, and he appeared to still be growing as strange as that was. Moreover, Hadyn seemed to actually understand what he said and for a wild creature, was way too willing to obey requests. Rys was still too scared to outright order anything, but requests seemed fine.

That night, sleep came easily and they slept far into the dawn.

The knocking woke Rys up.

He sat up straight in the bed abruptly, blinking his eyes rapidly to get the sleep out of them and pushed the covers down. He dragged his hand through his grey hair and pushed it out of his face, cursing himself for once again forgetting to braid it. The sun was shining through the window and on the bed next to his, Tif was loudly snoring. Rys cleared his throat and called out, "What?"

The voice of the young waiter answered him through the door. "Breakfast will be over in an hour. If you miss it, you'll have to wait for lunch to get food."

"Alright, thank you for the reminder!" Rys answered the boy.

He heard the footsteps as the boy left and fell back down on the bed. In the sunlight, his grey skin and pointy ears were distinctly inhuman and in a comfortable bed with warm covers, he didn't go to sleep with his cloak on. If the boy had walked in to wake them he was quite sure that the entire establishment would wake up from his screams. Likely, there would be a bloodbath, because Rys might not know how to do much with swords aside from waving the pointy end at his enemy, but he wasn't going to just lay down and die.

For the last few weeks, he'd lived more than he had for millennia and he found that he liked it.

Adventures sucked and if he had a choice, he would much rather just own a small house in a forest, isolated from the trouble that were people and live his life reading and making weapons to sell.

So, he wasn't going to look at it as an adventure, because it wasn't. It was a travel to learn, an opportunity to find knowledge he otherwise wouldn't have even suspected existed. Rys wasn't going to fight trolls, battle dragons or break some old curse. He was going to follow a troublesome band of champions as they attempted to vanquish evil spirits in a haunted fortress.

He didn't look forwards to it in the slightest.

Rys combed through his hair and put it up into a high ponytail once he'd managed to tame it somewhat. It was probably the most well protected of secret of the elves, that their hair always had a tendency to tangle. He'd seen some weird things on his siblings' head when they were little and refused to brush their hair because it hurt. He was pretty sure a bird had been living in his little sister's hair for a few weeks before their mother put her foot down.

As he dressed, he went to Tif's side and shook her awake. "Wake up."

After several increasingly more vocal demands for her to awaken, Tif finally deigned to open her large eyes and blinked blearily up at him from her position hugging the pillow at the end of the bed. "What is it Rys, can't you see I'm sleeping here?"

Rys rose an eyebrow at her. "Food will stop being served in about half an hour, if you don't get up now you'll miss it."

Tif sat up so fast her legs got tangled in the pillow and her head looked like it literally bounced on her small neck. "Why didn't you say so first?!"

"Because I like to torture you." Rys gave her the friendliest smile he could and left the room, ignoring her sputtering behind him. It was unexpectedly fun, to see the look on her face when she panicked.

Perhaps he should endeavor to do so more often.

On the bottom floor, the room was half empty, a far less loud affair than the night before and Rys sat down in the corner again, making sure to keep the hood of the cloak up. Light streamed in through the windows so hardly any candles were lit. The same woman was behind the bar and her son, the only waiter he'd seen so far, were walking between the tables taking orders.

He ordered breakfast for Tif as well, because he wasn't _that_ cruel, and told the same story of his cursed grandmother that he had before when the boy asked. He seemed to enjoy the story and Rys regaled on about how crazy Tif was to an eager audience.

It was fun.

Tif emerged from the stairs just as the food arrived. It was bread and warm milk, very suitable for the cold weather. Again, the sight of Tif literally climbing up on the chair was amusing and Rys couldn't keep the laugh inside him. Tif glared at him and hissed out a sharp, "Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything." Rys said.

She grumbled out, "You were thinking it."

Smiling in amusement, Rys responded with, "If you say so."

The day was off to a good start.

***

This time, they left Rose behind in the stables.

Rys watched with eager eyes as snowflakes fell on the ground they stepped on, forming a thin layer of white on it. He kept a hold of the hood carefully, as they appeared to be in a rather busy area, with people hurrying this way and that. The necklace he'd bought was around his neck under his cloak, hidden well enough that nobody could see it. He wasn't stupid enough to leave a shiny thing like that in plain sight, that would be like asking to be robbed.

Close to the Hall of Remembrance was a fancy Inn for wealthy people. Tif presumed that the Champions would be meeting there and so that was where they were headed.

It was as they were passing an alley on one of the side streets they were taking to avoid losing each other in the mess of humans that they heard the sound of fighting. He and Tif shared a look, utterly failing in communicating as Tif took off into the alleyway despite Rys' rather desperate shaking of his head.

They were in enough trouble already and he wasn't a good enough person to risk his life for a stranger he had never met.

Regardless, he followed Tif into the alley.

The alley was darker than the rest of the street, but the sun was high enough in the sky that he could still make up the identity of the people fighting. It was the woman who had sold him the necklace, facing off against a rough looking man taller than her and with the same dark skin. Attempting to interfere was the other woman he had only caught a glimpse of, but she had the same dark skin and red hair.

They were fighting with swords and the man looked fully prepared to kill.

Rys did _so_ not want to interfere.

Tif, as was customary, utterly ignored his wishes and stabbed the man with a dagger in his leg, the only place she could really reach.

Rys felt a distinct urge to stab _her_ with a dagger.

The man let out a grunt of pain, which was impressive considering that Rys would have undoubtedly screamed from being stabbed, and shook Tif off at the same time as he blocked a swing of the sword from the woman. As the shorter woman once again attempted to interfere in the fight and attack on her own, he finally moved further into the alley. He would be useless in an honest to god fight, so he wasn't going to risk his life fighting the man, but he could grab the woman and try to keep her out of harm's way.

He grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her back forcefully. He was immensely glad for the strength that came from beating metal with a hammer for centuries that meant that though she was far stronger than the average human woman, she was still unable to break out of his hold.

Meanwhile, Tif was starting to cling to the man to limit his movements while he fought the other woman. It wasn't a bad strategy, but it did look ridiculous.

Despite the gravity of the situation, he felt a smile pulling at his lips.

He kept a hold of the woman in his arms as she fervently tried to get loose to help what he suspected was her sister. Despite the height difference, they looked similar enough to be family.

After more sword swings and curses from the woman that shouldn't be said in polite company, the man was finally faced with a sword through his stomach, made a weird gurgling sound and fell to the ground, still and silent.

Tif prodded him with her foot and when he made no move or sound, she scoffed loudly to herself, and muttered out a loud, "Weak." in the silence.

Rys let go of the woman and watched as she ran up to the other one.

"Are you alright?!"

The taller woman rolled her black eyes and smiled, "I'm fine, Reina. Have some faith in me."

"I have faith in you, but I also know how strong they are. You never finished your training Brenna, if they stop sending them just one and one, eventually they'll get lucky." the shorter woman stated and frowned.

The taller one shrugged, "So what? It doesn't change anything, does it?"

"No but..." started the shorter one.

"There are no buts." the taller one interrupted. "We have no choices left."

The shorter one smiled wearily and turned around towards Rys. Her eyes went wide and she stopped breathing. After a half-stuttered breath, she asked, "You... what are you?"

"What are you talking about, Reina?" the taller one directed her gaze to Rys as well and froze. "What the hell?" she mumbled.

Rys felt the hood fall down against his back and cursed.

The alley wasn't dark enough that his grey skin couldn't be seen and his hair was in a high tail, leaving his inhuman ears easily noticed. There was no way that he could explain it away, make up some story of curses like for Tif. If they attacked him or called for guards... he was dead.

They were human and he was so distinctly _not_ that there was nothing to be done.

The taller woman lifted her bloody sword up higher and demanded, "What are you?"

There was nothing to lose now. He should probably go with the more human friendly answer first. "An elf."

She narrowed her eyes and scoffed, "Elves don't have grey skin, nor do they have canines."

Rys narrowed his eyes as well and continued, "And half orc."

The women stared at him with wide open eyes. The shorter one was the one that said, "Half... orc? Is that even possible?"

Rys smiled cynically in response and stated, "Now that's just mean."

The sword dropped from the taller one's hand and she frowned in thought, letting go of her sister to press her hands against her face. "Are you serious? You're not just messing with us?"

"Why would I want to mess with you? I have no idea who you are." Rys stated unpassionately.

The shorter woman straightened her back and said, "My name is Reina and this is my younger sister Brenna."

"And you told me this why? I have absolutely no interest in getting to know you." Rys deadpanned.

The taller woman, Brenna, dragged her hands through her curled hair and snapped back, "And we don't want to know you. But you're an orc. I can't just let you go without finding out your intentions at least."

"Sightseeing." Rys stated flatly.

"Like I'll just believe you." Brenna smiled pleasantly at him.

Rys smiled back. "And you just killed a man in cold blood. What are _your_ intentions?"

Immediately, she leaned back and grimaced. "That's none of your business."

"Nor is mine yours."

Brenna looked away and breathed deeply. "Then it seems we're at an impasse."

"So it seems." answered Rys.

Rys watched, his panic making his heart race in his chest, as the two women started conversing to themselves. He could probably overhear them if he tried to, but he wasn't interested in listening to people talk about him. It never revealed anything good.

He breathed in and out slowly, trying to calm himself down as he waited for whatever decision they were fighting over. And to think the day had gotten off to such a good start too. While they argued, he pulled the hood back up over his ears and face. Eventually, they seemed to reach a conclusion.

The shorter woman turned back towards him. "I am half human and half dwarf. Is this a problem?"

Rys tilted his head. "I don't understand."

The woman smiled at him. "We would like to go sightseeing with you, if that's alright."

Rys rose an eyebrow. "Do as you like."

Brenna picked up her sword and put it back in its scabbard. "If you do anything stupid, I'll stab you."

Rys smiled wryly. "Duly noted."

***

The Inn the Champions were staying at until they left for their quest was a fancy three story thing. The windows were high and let in plenty of light, the walls coated a lovely shade of blue. Rys and his company of murderous females arrived in time for lunch.

Brenna stopped outside with the rest of them and scoffed. "Here? What do you want to do here? You realize there are plenty of guards here that'll kill you on sight, right?"

Rys threw her a glare. "I know. Buy if I limited my movements based on where people will kill me, I wouldn't be able to go _anywhere_."

Reina stepped in between them and said, "Let's just all calm down. I think what my sister meant was that going in there is dangerous. Are you sure you want to enter?"

Rys didn't bother to respond. Truthfully, he wanted to be anywhere but here. Lovena's Inn was, as Brenna stated, full of guards, not to mention the Champions that were gathered there. They would probably be able to tell what he was on sight. But they needed to know when they left and what route they would take as well as what Sorcerer they would be bringing with them.

The only way to learn these things was to eavesdrop on them.

Which meant entering a heavily guarded inn for important people.

Rys could already see the entire plan falling apart.

The Inn was like another world. The ceiling was high, with chandeliers hanging from it with glowing lightbulbs providing light and chasing away shadows. There was no dark corner he could hide in and escape scrutiny. On the red walls hung paintings, both of landscapes and people and the tables looked new, with comfortable chairs. There was a stage in one of the corner, presumably for entertainers and the bar was a fancy thing, with dark shining wood, and many bottles on shelves behind it. The two humans that stood behind the grand thing looked clean, with what was probably tailored clothes.

The humans sitting at the tables were dressed even more expensively. They had clothes with gold threads and buttons, all of them carrying swords where the scabbard was decorated with an unnecessary number of jewels. Around them, next to the walls, stood people dressed in armor and with swords and spears out in the open. There was a slight possibility that Rys hadn't thought this through quite as much as he should have.

He resisted the urge to tug at the hood, make sure it was covering everything, knowing it would just make him appear more suspicious. Instead he sat down at one of the tables a little out of the way and with a good vantage point of the rest of the room. He could see people looking him over and he hoped that the lack of a sword would get them to ignore him. On the other hand, he was still being followed by Brenna, who had a very obvious sword at her side.

The table was round and had four chairs that they made full use of, with Tif on one side of him, Brenna on the other and Reina across from him. He settled in on the padded chair and let his gaze drift over the customers filling the room.

So far, he hadn't seen a single dwarf or elf.

Rys concentrated on his hearing, hoping to catch some useful information when Brenna suddenly sat up straight and stared behind him. Rys furrowed his eyebrows and was just about to turn around and see what had caught her attention when she hissed at him and grabbed a hold of his arm.

"Don't turn around you fool, do you want to give us away?" she glared at him hatefully as she whispered.

He took a hold of her hand forced her to let go. "What do you mean give us away, we're just here for lunch?"

"Oh, like I bought that for a second. But I mean the man who just sat down at the table behind you. He's a Warlord from Sikera, if he realizes who we are, he'll kill us all." Brenna hissed out between clenched teeth.

Rys froze. "You're from Sikera? What are you doing here?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Obviously, we're on the run. We may have... stolen some stuff. Harmless stuff really, don't get why they keep hunting us down. Besides, we've already sold off everything we brought with us to Loria."

"So, you both steal and murder, and you doubt my intentions?" Rys asked, amused despite it all.

Brenna looked away. "When you say it like that, it sounds worse. It's not like we're murderers, we just defend ourselves as necessary and sometimes that requires killing your enemy."

Before Rys could retort, Reina hissed at them to be quiet, at odds with what he knew of her personality so far. Rys looked at the way she leaned closer to center of the table and leaned back on his chair himself, trying his best to hear what they were saying. It wasn't hard, they weren't trying very hard to speak lowly and though the table behind Rys was some distance away from where he was sitting, his hearing more than made up for it.

He listened intently and once he had the gist of what they were speaking of, he relayed it to his companions. "They aren't here for you. Apparently, a lot of rich people are gathered here right now, so they're going to follow them on the road and once they're a decent distance away from the city, rob them for everything they have."

Brenna and Reina both breathed out deeply and leaned back on the chairs. "To think I was actually scared there for a moment," Brenna started, "who do you think they're going to rob?"

"Probably those going on the quest." Rys thoughtlessly stated.

Brenna turned towards him and asked, "There's going to be a quest? For what?"

Rys looked at the eager expression on her face and swallowed uneasily. He had a bad feeling about this. "To the Forest of Dorlan. Something about evil spirits?"

"If they're going on a quest they'll be bringing a lot of special items with them." Brenna said with a dreamy expression. "I bet there'll be artifacts and rare books too. Maybe even heirlooms. Do you know when they'll leave? This is a very rare opportunity. Let's rob them first."

"Are you serious?" Rys demanded.

Brenna gave him a look that said he was an idiot. "Of course, I am. Let's rob them for all they have."

Rys took a deep breath to calm down. "They are going on a quest. They'll likely need what they bring with them to survive. Not to mention that a _Warlord_ is already planning to rob them blind."

"And why would any of that matter?" Brenna deadpanned. "Our survival is more important than theirs and we need more stuff to sell."

Rys just shook his head and let his thoughts wander.

Logically speaking, whatever trinkets the Champions brought with them on their quest were probably necessary for their survival in the long run. If they were robbed, chances were they would die before even reaching the fortress. Which would mean that they wouldn't have to do anything for them to fail. But they could also die while under attack, an attack he knew about and could probably, somehow, stop. An attack he wasn't going to stop. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

It went against everything he believed in.

The fact was that elves, despite their many flaws, were good people. They helped if they could and if they couldn't, it was for a good and valid reason. They offered aid to the sick and injured, fought in wars not their own to defeat tyranny. They taught those that came seeking knowledge and educated those that needed it. When they knew an attack was coming, the very least they would do was warn the future victims.

And here Rys was, contemplating not doing anything at all.

Somehow, it felt a little bit like betrayal.

Rys was an elf. He had elvish ideals, had received an education from elves and believed in the same things they did. But he was also an orc, an outsider that would never fit in anywhere. His skin was too grey, his ears too pointy and his teeth too sharp. He walked with the grace of elves, but he had strength like the orcs. His very existence was contradictory.

But, he had promised Tif that he would help her and stealing from the people going on the quest was about the most peaceful solution he could think of. If they didn't, they'd likely have to fight them to stop them from reaching the fortress, unless they fell to something on the way. This way, if done right, could avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

In the end, he didn't see any other options.

"Fine," he started, "let's rob them blind."

Brenna smiled at him, a slow devious thing, her black eyes seemingly glowing in the candlelight. Even Reina, proper as she appeared, had a look of contemplation on her face that said she wasn't against it. Tif just looked plain excited. He was probably going to regret this, but he had found that he disliked the feeling of regret less than he did rage. It didn't really matter if this whole thing fell apart, or if his heritage was revealed to the entire world. It was time he learned that life was unfair and cruel. Sometimes, doing wicked things for a less wicked answer was all you could do.

If his family ever found out what he planned to do, he didn't doubt that he would be disinherited. It was one thing when you were a well-behaved halfbreed that didn't know how to fight. It was another thing entirely when you deliberately went against the elven ideals and laws.

If he was caught, the best punishment to expect would be the death penalty.

But if he wasn't... if things went according to plan... he would fulfil his promise and could be back in the Forest of Dorlan within the year he had sworn. It wasn't a good solution and it wasn't kind, but if there was one thing he had learned recently, it was that life was rarely, if ever, _kind_.

Rys wasn't good at fighting or hunting or adventuring. But he was good at knowing his limits and fighting against the Champions head-on would lead to nothing but his death. And if it was between them and him, he would choose himself every time.

Life sucked and was unfair and cruel. It was a wicked thing filled with broken promises and failed oaths.

Maybe it was about time he understood that.

 


End file.
